Grandstand. In many respects, the pandemic has tested the resilience of our health system, i.e. its ability to absorb several shocks without permanently compromising the well-being of the French people. With what results?
Data recently released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (“ The impact of Covid-19 on health and health systems – “the impact of Covid-19 on health systems” –, OECD) show that, while France has devoted considerable resources to coping with these shocks, certain deficiencies have nevertheless been aggravated.
On the one hand, three indicators suggest that the French system has responded rather well to the pandemic.
First of all, the gap in life expectancy between the French and Europeans, historically favorable to France (+ 1.7 years), remained stable between 2019 and 2020.
Then, between January 2020 and December 2021, excess mortality in France was 10% lower than that observed in the average of European OECD countries.
Finally, access to care has been maintained thanks in particular to the massive use of teleconsultations during confinement and to the increase in the capacity of intensive care beds.
Depression and anxiety
On the other hand, the crisis has contributed to a sharp increase – in France as in other countries – in the prevalence of depression and anxiety problems, which notably doubled during the first confinement. And the pandemic has increased the importance of structural problems: shortage of workers, difficulties in coordinating and integrating care, lack of transparency on the quality of care, misinformation, problems with the continuous training of health personnel, etc.
Finally, while France did not take the shock any worse than the other OECD countries, the crisis has taught us at least two lessons.
First of all, due to a lack of suitable human resources, we are ill-prepared to deal with peaks in healthcare needs.
Then, our health policies are insufficiently centered on people’s interests and do not give enough priority to the search for the value of care.
Under the impetus of the European Union, the French government responded to these challenges in 2021 with a massive investment program in the health system. The national plan for recovery and resilience indeed devotes 6 billion euros to modernize the health and medico-social sectors, and improve the supply of care in cities and hospitals.
Will this plan allow us to better prepare for future shocks? This question is central because our health system must anticipate a new shock, that of the demographic transition. The crisis has shown that the elderly sector was ill-prepared to deal with peaks in demand for care. However, from 2030 we will enter a pivotal period, marked by the entry into the “critical” ages (75-85 years) of the “baby boomers”, i.e. the ages at which the risks of loss of autonomy – and the associated needs – will increase sharply.
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