Which specialists are most affected by the shortage?

An alarming map of France which shows the extent of the medical deserts on our territory. The UFC-Que Choisir unveils this Tuesday a study which puts concrete figures on the difficulties of access to city medicine for many French people. The UFC-Que Choisir consumer association is interested in four categories of doctors.

Doctors more than 45 minutes away

These are general practitioners, gynecologists, ophthalmologists and pediatricians. According to UFC-Que Choisir, a quarter of women and a quarter of children live in a medical, gynecological desert and a pediatric medical desert. Access to a general practitioner is also very complicated, for more than 15 million French people, says the association. To conduct this study, UFC-Que Choisir crossed two criteria: the geographical distance of the doctors, accessible within a 45-minute drive, and the prices charged. If we take into account only the doctors who do not practice excess fees, the shortage of doctors grows in a maddening way, tells us the UFC-Que Choisir.

In South Europe, Anthony, a listener, explained having difficulty seeing a dentist. “I called 80. I called almost all of Finistère. They tell me ‘me, I’m not taking anyone, call a colleague’, and the colleague tells me the same thing”, he told the microphone by Romain Desarbres. “After a year of waiting, I finally got an appointment with someone near my home. The gynecologist is the same thing, the ophthalmologist is the same thing… Finistère is catastrophic“, he blew.

So in an attempt to stem these inequalities, the Association asks the legislator to no longer allow doctors to settle in over-supplied areas, with the exception of doctors practicing Social Security tariffs, and to abolish public aid for doctors not respecting the Social Security tariff.