Filtering patients in Nice or Montauban, night or partial closures in Loire Atlantique, many hospitals or clinics must adapt to the lack of caregivers everywhere in France.
But the Minister of Health, François Braun, nevertheless wants to be reassuring on franceinfo: “Vital emergencies are covered. You always have to think about that though. The French, the vast majority of French people, 98% are within 30 minutes of an emergency team. Whether fixed or mobile.“
medical deserts
“There are 98% of French people who are less than 30 minutes from an emergency team, whether fixed or mobile”, says François Braun, Minister of Health
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Nearly a million French people more than 30 minutes from access to emergency care
The figure put forward by François Braun corresponds to the calculations of the Drees, the statistics department of the Ministry of Health in a diagnosis published in 2020: 992,836 French people, or 1.5% of the population, live more than 30 minutes from access to emergency care.
This 30-minute bar was not taken at random. It is considered a critical threshold, especially in the event of myocardial infarction. But it remains to qualify because it does not take into account the time of triggering of the alert and that of the support. In addition, it includes services that are only available during the day.
The Minister of Health evokes access to “an emergency team, whether fixed or mobile“. In fact, to reach nearly 98% of the population within 30 minutes of emergency care, it is necessary to include the travel of local doctors responsible for intervening while waiting for help, that of Samu teams by the road or by air, or even the use of Civil Security helicopters.If we only take travel by road into account, there are more than 2.5 million French people far from emergency care.
In addition, the figure put forward by François Braun masks a very strong inequality according to the territories. In Corsica, Martinique or Guyana, the share of the population far from emergency care is between 15 and 20%. Conversely, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, this proportion drops to 0.5% of the population.
Not to mention the travel of health professionals, the remoteness of emergency services in hospitals and clinics concerns many more people. According to a study published by the Association of Mayors of France last year, more than 6 million French people, 10% of the population, live more than 30 minutes from a reception structure. And among them, three quarters live in rural areas.