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in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Medical validation:
January 26, 2023
While access to care is becoming more and more problematic in France, the city of Nevers has opted for a drastic solution: bring doctors by plane to get out of the medical desert.
This is a big first. This Thursday,air bridges“will be put in place to transport caregivers from Dijon to Nevers. The municipality, deserted by the doctors, has not found any other solution to continue to treat the inhabitants.
The first flight will have eight passengers on board
A few weeks ago, Thierry Lemoine, president of the Council of the Order of Physicians of Nièvre, had already sounded the alarm.
“Yes, probably we die in the Nièvre for lack of doctors“, he had declared.
To overcome this cruel lack of caregivers, the mayor of Nevers, Denis Thuriot, had taken a drastic solution: set up air routes between Dijon and Nevers.
A decision which materialized this Thursday with a first flight, carrying eight passengers on board.
With barely 35 minutes of flight – instead of three hours by car – this solution appears to be the fastest but also the most “economical” according to the mayor.
If this flight costs all the same “around 5400 euros, i.e. 650 euros per passenger“said the mayor to France Bleu, it is always less than the sum linked to the hiring of temporary workers (3.5 million euros per year for the hospital, already heavily in debt).
“If I use even half of that 3.5 million, that gets me two aerial rotations a week.“, notes the mayor.
Still, this extreme and not very ecological solution is strongly criticized.
“This decision is absolutely not viable in the long term”
According to Dr. Kierzek, to arrive at this situation is totally absurd.
“It is a response to an emergency on the territory, but which is absolutely not viable in the long term. No thought has been given to regional planning, no means have been put in place to attract liberal and hospital doctors. Resorting to humanitarian bridges, in France, in 2023, is a tragedy“, protests the medical director of Doctissimo.