The Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau said he was “annoyed” Thursday, in Libération, after the legal action of the UFC-Que Choisir association which accuses the government of “inaction” in the face of medical deserts, considering their criticism “unbearable”.
The association filed an appeal with the Council of State on Tuesday to denounce the government’s inaction in the face of growing inequalities in access to primary care doctors, including general practitioners, gynecologists, ophthalmologists and pediatricians. In particular, it calls for measures to regulate the installation of doctors.
Being accused of inaction irritates me. To allow this idea to exist that, for politicians, people’s lives would be a setting in which we walk, is unbearable. I am not disconnected, Aurlien Rousseau defended himself in an interview with the daily newspaper Libration.
For the ophthalmologists, it’s true that there are difficulties but that’s precisely why we pushed them to agree to share certain tasks with the orthoptists! We also moved on dental care, he argued.
In the Social Security financing bill for 2024, we generalize the possible presence of dental regulation in healthcare access services. There is no inaction, he added.
But the government does not actually agree to force a doctor (…) to settle somewhere. Because we are convinced that the cure would be worse than the disease, that doctors would then risk changing professions, he continued.
Asked about the winter epidemics, the minister also welcomed the success of vaccination against Covid-19: There are one million additional vaccinations compared to last year, with a total of 3.8 million. injected doses, 75% intended for vulnerable people, he specified.
Concerning the fight against bronchiolitis, he indicated that in addition to the 50,000 additional doses of Beyfortus (preventive treatment administered to babies) ordered by Sanofi to survive the winter season in maternity wards, the government had been able to have 20,000 additional doses of 100 mg for children weighing more than 5 kilos, intended for pharmacies.