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Public health doctor, Alice Desbiolles returns to the health crisis linked to Covid-19 and calls in her book to review certain foundations which structure our health system. Entitled “Repairing health”, published by Rue de l’échiquier, the book has been available since January 20.
Doctissimo: What are the reasons that led you to write this book and why did you call it “Repairing Health”?
Alice Desbiolles : Several reasons pushed me to write this book and its title is a title with drawer. In the book, I come back to the sequence of the Covid, unprecedented from many points of view: medical, scientific or even political. I also consider that health has been damaged, both by the impact on health of the coronavirus but also by the crisis management. The fundamentals of medical practice have also been damaged. Finally, it is also necessary to repair planetary health, because environmental damage continues to impact our health.
What do you think has been the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the cohesion of French society?
Alice Desbiolles : The coronavirus crisis has had a significant impact because it has forced the French to choose their camp: the camp of the economy, health or freedoms, it has artificially created “opposing” camps: those for or against the vaccine or the mask for example… Whereas in reality, we should have found a happy medium, without seeking to achieve Chinese-style Zero Covid, or falling into absolute laissez-faire as advocated by Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro. There was no reason to choose health rather than freedom, for example, nor to choose one side to the detriment of another: this has no place in a crisis, where on the contrary, cohesion in ordeal should trump division.
What are the flaws in our current healthcare system and how can we improve them?
Alice Desbiolles : First of all, I would like to remind you that there are things that work in our system, which remains a protective model with Social Security and the country’s investment in health at 11% of GDP, which does not is not nothing. However, the inequalities are widening, the working conditions of caregivers are unattractive… The approach of doctors vis-à-vis patients is also much too technical: the patient is reduced to a biological or technical parameter such as blood pressure, heart or respiratory rate. But will improving this parameter alone make the person feel completely better? We need much more global support for the individual. For this, the training of doctors should include what I call the forgotten humanities: sociology, ethics, philosophy of science… So many areas that allow multidisciplinary care for patients. Without forgetting the place of prevention, which is essential. I recall in this respect that 40% of cancers would be avoidable, if one changes one’s way of life. But all of this is also and above all the result of political choices, societal choices and more global changes than what is currently being done.