Access to care: the UFC-Que Choisir calls on the public authorities

The words are strong. UFC-Que Choisir, the recognized consumer association, bangs its fist on the table and calls on the public authorities to carry out “shock therapy” to upgrade access to healthcare for the French population.

Degradation of liberal medicine in France

After noting last November “the deplorable state of geographical and financial access to care in France” and the existence of an “intolerable health divide” due to the lack of doctors and their poor distribution on the territory, the ‘UFC-Que Choisir is now pushing the State to find solutions.

She recalls that “the supply of liberal medicine, already sluggish, will deteriorate” and that “by 2030, the density of liberal doctors will drop by 5%”. Based on these facts, the Union has carried out an econometric study which measures the impact of this drop on hospital emergencies.

Without surprise, “a 1% decrease in the density of private doctors in a department increases the activity of its emergencies by up to 0.6% in the short term, and up to 0.9% in the long term“Notes UFC-Que Choisir, recalling that the departments already under-resourced will be the first to be affected.

Limit the installation of liberal doctors

One of the association’s proposals is to tackle the “dogma of total freedom of installation” liberal doctors. ” More than ever, regulation of the installation of doctors ” by the public power ” is an emergency in France ” underlines the association.

For its Vice President Daniel Bideau, “this proposal is made because we are relaying the voice of users, who are sounding the alarm and complaining about this situation”. Besides, he says,we are in favor of setting up new doctors in areas where many of them overcharge. On the only condition that they practice agreed rates! Because the rest to be paid also represents the rest to live of the users, it should not be forgotten”.

Daniel Bideau also deplores the competition that may exist between municipalities to attract doctors, proof of a “lack of central management of these facilities”.

The three proposals of the UFC-Que Choisir

In its press release, the association thus shares three proposals that it submits to the Ministries of Health and Higher Education and Research, namely:

• “To organize the permanence and continuity of care by coordinating hospital medicine and city medicine, which still too often operate in silos;
• To increase the capacity for training doctors in the faculties, in order to meet the needs of the population within 10 years;
• Pilot training to prioritize specialties and regions where medical demography is the most insufficient in relation to the demand for cares”.