A health center closes and thousands of patients are left orphaned. France has around 2,000, including 428 multiprofessionals, according to the Ministry of Health. These groups of doctors, in the same place, were presented as THE solution in medical deserts.
But some disappear, as in Monluçon, in Allier. The center closes its doors on Wednesday June 30, less than a year after its inauguration. This is not for financial reasons, the town hall having invested 900,000 euros in the project. Two salaried doctors have in fact resigned, and the APARM, the Association of abandoned patients in search of doctors, which manages the center, has failed to find new practitioners.
Everything is still brand new in this room loaned by the town hall. Since the announcement of the closure of the nursing home, the atmosphere has been gloomy. Yasmina comes through the door for the last time, and a feeling dominates, anger. “Frankly, where do we go now?”, worries this octogenarian. Her doctor gave her a prescription for six months. “But after ?”
“I have heart disease, I need medicine every month. Where do I get it prescribed?”
Yasmina, patient at the Montluçon health center
to franceinfo
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Like at least 7,000 other patients, Yasmina finds herself without an attending physician. This is also the case for Liliane, to whom we have just given her medical file. “We give it back to you when you are dead, or when there is no longer a doctor”, she points out.
She is completely distraught, and already sees herself “go to the emergency room, call the fire department” when her heart-sick husband is ill. “We have the impression that rurality is not the priority”, he believes. “The doctors did take an oath, saying that they must treat everyone. You go to an office, they refuse you.” For him, “it is non-assistance to a person in danger”.
In 2021, the Monluçonnais basin has 32 doctors for 70,000 inhabitants. This is little. Patients find it difficult to understand why the practitioners refuse to settle in the health center. “Here, they have the possibility of being employed, of having their weekends. I found that it was a good solution for them”, says a patient. “Now, there you go! If there is no doctor, there is no doctor”.
In any case, there are not enough volunteers. Doctor Gauvin, around whom the health center project was built, has nevertheless been warning about the situation for years.
“It’s a disaster, no long-term vision of all the ministers I’ve seen in 40 years.”
Doctor Gauvin, doctor at the Montluçon health center
to franceinfo
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“We did not invent the wire to cut butter, it is written, good god! It has been written for 20 years!”, he gets angry. “And instead of raising the numerus clausus when needed, they didn’t. So now it’s too late.” For the doctor, it is surely necessary to establish a “obligation to set up a geographic location at the start of studies. If we do it today, it will pay off in 12-15 years! “
We should also be able to hire doctors from outside the European Union, adds the practitioner, who denounces a lack of political support. The mayor of Montluçon assures us that a similar project, with retired doctors, should soon see the light of day.
Report by Maureen Suignard at the Montluçon Health Center
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