FRANCE: Rural areas at heart of health reforms
WHEN Joelle Dupas falls ill she goes to a medical centre in her home town in rural western France, where all 12 doctors have come out of retirement.
The 66yearold tried for months to find a doctor after retiring to Laval, a quiet town of 50,000 residents surrounded by rolling fields. Her search ended at the simple centre managed by the 12 veteran doctors, aged between 67 and 70, on the ground floor of an apartment block.
‘‘You need to wait at least a year to get an appointment with an ophthalmologist,’’ Dupas, a former secretary and saleswoman, told Reuters in the waiting room. ‘‘It was not like this years ago.’’
The Service Medical de Proximite (SMP), where each doctor works a few days a month with the help of medical interns, is a local response to a national problem that has hit Laval hard.
Although France enjoys a reputation for having one of the world’s best healthcare systems, it has an ageing population and a shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas. In Laval, only one in five residents is believed to have a family doctor, local professionals say.
President Emmanuel Macron has put rural France at the heart of an overhaul of the healthcare system that he announced on September 18, promising more money and doctors for what he called ‘‘healthcare deserts’’ in areas outside big cities.
The reforms are an important test for Macron. Success could help reverse a fall in his popularity since he was elected in May 2017, and counter leftist criticism that he is a ‘‘president of the rich’’. But with opinion polls showing healthcare is a priority for voters, failure could badly damage his presidency.
‘‘France obviously has good fundamentals when it comes to healthcare,’’ said Laurent Chambaud, the director of France’s School of Advanced Studies in Public Health. ‘‘But, like in many other developed countries, the system, which centres around hospitals, has to reform itself to adapt to social changes.
‘‘If it doesn’t do so in the next five to 10 years, the system will be totally saturated.’’ which are always packed. Here someone listens.’’
Mayenne authorities have tried to remedy the situation by helping doctors trained abroad, especially in eastern Europe and the Middle East, to settle in the area. Last year, a third of new doctors entering practice in Mayenne qualified outside France.