“The situation is getting worse”, denounces the UFC-Que Choisir, which is taking legal action for “inaction” by the State

The UFC-Que Choisir association announced Tuesday that it had filed an appeal before the Council of State to denounce the government’s “inaction” in the face of growing inequalities in access to care and to urge it to act.

“We are moving up a gear and attacking the State for inaction” because of “large parts of the territory are seeing their situation deteriorate in terms of accessibility”to medicine, laments Maria Roubtsova, health mission manager at UFC-Que Choisir who is referring the matter to the Council of State. “We want to give doctors the choice to settle where they want but among under-resourced areas where there will be retirements in the years to come”unlike dentists, midwives, physiotherapists or nurses, “doctors are the only healthcare profession to have such freedom of installation”points out UFC Que-Choisir.

franceinfo: Why did you decide to refer the matter to the Council of State “for inaction” by the State on the issue of medical deserts?

Maria Rubtsova: Since 2012, we have alerted the authorities and published maps of medical deserts. We have already been received by ministers, by ministerial offices who have listened to us very politely but for the moment.

“We have not managed to obtain results through this traditional strategy of influence and therefore, faced with the situation which continues to worsen, we are moving up a gear and this time we are attacking the State for inaction.”

Maria Roubtsova, health project manager at UFC-Que Choisir

at franceinfo

Is the situation not getting better, is it getting worse?

Today 83% of the population resides in a medical desert for at least one specialty such as pediatricians, ophthalmologists, pediatricians and gynecologists. Nearly a quarter of the population has difficulty accessing a general practitioner. We publish maps with the evolution of the situation between 2021 and 2023 where we see that large sections of the territory see their situation deteriorate in terms of accessibility.

More than half of general practitioners refuse new patients?

Quite. Our volunteers played the role of mystery patient and called general practitioners and more than half of the doctors, 51.5% of the general practitioners surveyed, did not accept new patients while it was already 44% in 2019. Indeed , the situation is getting worse. This year we also contacted ophthalmologists who refuse new patients in 28% of cases and the average waiting time is 65 days.

What should we do then?

What we are defending is how to manage this shortage for the next ten years and in particular with the regulation of the installation. What we hope is to limit the damage since today it is in the departments where there are the fewest that general practitioners are the oldest. In the years to come, they will retire and if we do nothing, inequalities will increase since the new arrivals are less and less well distributed across the territory.

“We want to give doctors the choice to settle where they want but among under-resourced areas where there will be retirements in the years to come. Today, doctors are the only healthcare profession to have access to ‘such freedom of installation.’

Maria Roubtsova, health project manager at UFC-Que Choisir

at franceinfo

Since this summer, pharmacists, physiotherapists, nurses, midwives, dentists have the choice of settling in under-resourced areas and no longer in over-resourced areas, there are only doctors left. who have this privilege and it becomes more and more difficult to defend.