In Creuse, the village of Ajain found itself without a doctor for two years. The association “Médecins solidaires” then remedied this: several doctors from all over France follow one another to help the inhabitants. Brut went there.
In Ajain, in this village in Creuse, it had been two years since the last attending physician retired, without a successor. To solve this problem, Martial Jardel, general practitioner, and co-founder of the association “Solidarity doctors” found a solution. “There are plenty of doctors throughout the territory who will be able, through their professional situation, to arrange a week in their medical agenda to come and participate in the project. And so there are doctors who come from all over France. Doctor Perreau who comes from Angers, Doctor Leclerq who comes from Nantes, there are doctors from Paris…” he describes. Thus, all these solidarity doctors share the consultations and follow one another, one week each, so as not to leave this village without a medical body.
“People join because they simply have no other solution”
Clémentine Labourré is a general practitioner, and is part of the project. “I had just finished my studies, my internship, and so I was looking for replacement offers on the sites and in particular on the social networks and I saw Martial’s announcement which explained the project a little and I found that it was a great idea. See if it can work, I think it’s interesting and so I wanted to be part of the adventure.”
This project has enabled Ajain to have medical personnel on site, in particular to monitor residents. “Our attending physician retired on December 31, 2020. And since that date and even since a little before, we had tried to take action with local media of course, regional media, even national media, nothing did, we couldn’t find a doctor. (…) We had almost two years without a doctor. So the people in the commune tried to look for a doctor. They found, sometimes, but far enough, twenty, thirty kilometers, even more”, explains the mayor, Guy Rouchon.
It has been four months since the center opened, and this project has won over patients. “We’re happy to have done this experiment, eh, even if we listened to little things: ‘Here, we’re not going to have the same doctor.’ This little restraint on the part of people, but no, in the end people adhere because they have no other solutions, quite simply“, adds the mayor.