Question 18146 — medicine

Summary

Ms. Annick Cousin questions the Minister of Labor, Health and Solidarity about medical deserts. Indeed, in 2023, 7.4 million French people resided in what we call a medical desert, and 80% of the territory had difficulty accessing care. This situation often forces them to spend long hours in the car or on public transport to access basic medical care or to obtain medicines. This problem is not just the result of an insufficient number of doctors. In reality, new generations of doctors favor positions in university hospitals (CHU), large cities and coastal areas, rather than practice in rural areas. Access to care is deteriorating and the time it takes to get an appointment is getting longer: today, it takes on average 13 days longer than it did five days ago. years to see a specialist, and one in ten patients cannot get an appointment. According to INSEE, in 2023, only 125 general practitioners were available per 100,000 inhabitants in Lot-et-Garonne, making the medical desert a major concern for many rural municipalities in this region. Although the public authorities have recently legislated to increase the number of practitioners, in particular with the law “ Valletoux” of December 23, 2023, aiming to improve access to care through the territorial commitment of professionals. Thus, the effects of this policy should not be visible before the 2030s. Until then, the territories must redouble their creativity to maintain access to care in critical situations. Since April 3, 2024, Lot-et-Garonne has launched the experiment with a medical bus. This vehicle, converted into a medical office itinerant, travels the roads of areas under-resourced with doctors. The objective of the medicobus is to compensate for the lack of general practitioners and to provide access to care for isolated populations. The medicobus mainly offers general medicine consultations and works in addition to existing general practitioners. It targets patients without a treating doctor or those whose doctor is unavailable, with the aim of reintegrating patients in a care pathway and offer them a first-line consultation. Another initiative of this department was implemented in the commune of Houeillès, where a new teleconsultation service was inaugurated on March 12, 2024 at the village pharmacy. This technology allows residents to obtain a remote consultation with a general practitioner without an appointment, thus facilitating access to care medical. These initiatives enable local residents to exceptionally maintain access to medical care in critical rural areas. Furthermore, to resolve the basic problem and allow the inhabitants of the departments of the territory characterized by medical deserts, she asks him what the solutions would be that would respond to these different problems in the long term.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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