“Fight against medical deserts, fight for health accessible to everyone, preservation of the public hospital: this is the outline of a project”

Tribune. The polls follow and resemble each other: health is today among the first concerns of the French. Once marginalized in public debate, it suddenly took center stage in politics, when a virus came to shake up our lives. Never had the concept of biopolitics dear to Michel Foucault been so hotly topical.

But, beyond the sole issue of Covid-19, it is indeed our entire health system that will have to be rethought. We, young doctors, with a left-wing sensitivity, want the social camp to speak out loudly on this subject. Having a lot of follow-up in a few ideas is our maxim: here are those that seem essential to us as the next presidential and legislative elections approach.

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First of all, the fight against medical deserts. We regret the lack of political anticipation of the crying shortage of doctors that affects us. In addition to the increase in training capacities, it is necessary to encourage more installation in under-resourced areas (development of collective practice in nursing homes, offers of salaried practice, etc.).

Innovative initiatives

But, between these incentives and too brutal coercion, other avenues must be considered. We could, for example, attribute the possibility for new doctors to exceed their fees, preferably to those who have practiced long enough, and without exceeding, in an under-staffed area. Or set up one year after the internship with marked exercise in hospitals, thus covering the entire territory.

It would also be necessary to develop a sharing of the research and teaching activities of urban CHUs with all of the country’s healthcare centers, to make the latter more attractive. These proposals are only leads, and must be discussed with all stakeholders in the health system.

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They are in line with innovative initiatives, which are already emerging here and there, such as the creation of the first years of medicine in medium-sized towns, with the aim of structurally changing the profile of students admitted to medical studies, less from large metropolitan areas and possibly more inclined to settle throughout the territory. The observation is therefore clear and shared, the whole field of possibilities now deserves to be explored, without dogmatism!

A paradigm shift

Then fight against social inequalities in health. We cannot accept that some of our fellow citizens are deprived of care for financial reasons. We must obviously move towards better coverage of dental and optical care, which crystallizes many obstacles to access to care. But it is also necessary to be attentive to the overruns of medical fees: these must be more limited.

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