Lost in the middle of the fields, the stone building, with its high windows framed in brick and its facade surmounted by a pediment, stands out against the green landscape. “It always surprises when I say that there is nothing around the town hall of Favril [Eure-et-Loir], apart from pasture and forest, but it is”, laughs John Billard, the city councilor of this small village nestled between the great cereal plains of Beauce and the bocage hills of Perche. The building will have known mixed fortunes. Formerly an asylum for the poor, then a municipal school, it now houses the town hall. And, since 2019, a medical teleconsultation cabin.
The first installed in France in a town hall. An originality that continues, three years later, to attract the curious. The town hall no longer counts the elected officials who have traveled to its connected medical office. Saving medical deserts thanks to teleconsultation? In 2017, when his project took shape, the idea was far from obvious. John Billard has come up against the reluctance of territorial administrations and health authorities for months. Until Matignon, who summons him, intrigued by his approach. A puzzle, but the city councilor persists.
“You have to realize that at the time it took at least twelve to fifteen days for the inhabitants of the town to get an appointment with a general practitioner”, he explains. After almost two years of battle, the agreement is finally given. The teleconsultation booth welcomes the first patients. Total cost, including the work to fit out the premises where the booth is installed: 100,000 euros, 80% financed by local authorities and the State. Added to this are the 1,200 euros disbursed each month by the town hall of Favril, as operating costs.
Make up for the lack of doctors
With four to five patients on average each week, the operation is not financially profitable. But “Residents appreciate this service, which meets their needs”, says Laurence Elisabeth, the town clerk. Since the arrival of the cabin, it is she who is responsible for welcoming patients, accompanying them to the room, cleaning and disinfecting after their passage. For John Billard, the results are more than satisfactory.
“We even saved a life!he says. The doctor detected an emergency in a patient while auscultating from a distance. The firefighters immediately came to pick her up to take her to Chartres hospital. » The Favriloise experience has been emulated. More and more local authorities are now equipped with teleconsultation booths to make up for the lack of doctors. A responsibility which however does not fall within their competence, this attribution being normally reserved for the State.
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