“It does not solve our problems in rural areas”, deplores the Association of Rural Mayors of France

“The rural world is not happy about this kind of thing which is more of a smokescreen than anything else,” asserts Gilles Noël, vice-president of the association, Saturday on franceinfo.

Penalty of five euros for patients in the event of a missed medical appointment, increase in the number of places in medical faculties, experiments in several departments with direct access to specialists, are among the measures detailed by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in an interview published by several regional press titles, to respond to the city healthcare crisis. “It doesn’t solve our problems in rural areas”deplores Gilles Noël, vice-president of the Association of Rural Mayors of France, on franceinfo.

The elected official, who is also mayor of Varzy, in Nièvre, says he “doubtful” with regard to the penalty measure, the amount of which set at 5 euros has just been revealed by Gabriel Attal, because for “six million French people who do not have a referring doctor”, “for them the rabbit tax will not be imposed since it is the cross and the banner to be able to access a doctor”. This will not change the situation made “hyper-filled waiting rooms” and of “overwhelmed doctors”. In other words, “the rural world is not happy with this kind of thing which is more of a smokescreen than anything else”. Gilles Noël is also very critical of the role that the practitioner will take: “I thought the doctor was there to treat us. Now, he’s going to be there to screw us.”

“A lot of yakafokon”

On the other hand, he welcomes the experimentation in thirteen departments opening up the possibility of consulting a specialist without going through a general practitioner, as well as the possibility for pharmacists to sell antibiotics for tonsillitis and cystitis. Measures that are “one more”for Gilles Noël, “to allow people to be able to at least be taken care of, by a nurse, by a pharmacist, by a physiotherapist”. He pursues : “We are quite happy to see that health professionals will now be able, to the extent of the negotiations that will be undertaken with them, to be able to provide something more, without excluding the doctor obviously, but without necessarily going through this box which is often for us difficult to reach”.

But overall, on all the announcements, the main measures of which still require clarification, Gilles Noël believes that there is on the part of the government “intentions”but “lots of ‘yakafokon'”measures that are too vague. “And for us, that doesn’t solve our problems in rural areas“, he concludes.