Preuilly Becomes a Medical Desert

Or at least, Preuilly is perilously close to being one of the medical deserts much talked about in the French media. Sadly the GP based in town died suddenly when on his rounds. It will prove extremely difficult to attract a new doctor to the town. France has a grave shortage of doctors, partly due to decades of not training sufficient medical students.

GPs are aging and now retiring. We were lucky a couple of years ago when our GP retired. A new GP was found and moved in to a newly refurbished surgery provided by the municipality. But he was already in his 60s, and one day recently a passerby found him dead in his car parked in the next village. He'd just been to see a patient at home. 

 

Preuilly now has a banner at the entrance to town announcing that we are seeking a doctor.

The reason there aren't enough young general practitioners is a system called the numerus clausus used throughout the 1990s. The numerus clausus was a quota, limiting the number of medical students that got through to the second year and therefore had a chance of qualifying after another couple more years of study. It didn't matter whether you passed your first year exams or not, if you fell below the numerus clausus you were not permitted to continue, and it turns out that the numbers allowed through were not sufficient for the current needs of the population. Now, of course, there are all sorts of frantic programmes to encourage students into medicine, in the form of grants and the establishment of multidisciplinary medical centres. Teleconsultations, getting hospitals, nurses and pharmacists to do more and encouraging retirement age doctors to stay on are also being used to maintain the level of service, particularly in rural areas.

Some areas in France have fewer than 5 doctors per 10 000 of population. Others have more than 30 doctors per 10 000 people. Here in the Sud Touraine we have about 10 - 12 doctors per 10 000 people, but to our immediate east and west they are at about 5 - 7 doctors per 10 000. Happily, immediately to our north there is about 15 doctors per 10 000 people. Half of all doctors in France are over 60 years of age.

If you want an appointment with a specialist the average wait is 20 days for a radiologist, 28 days for a dentist, 40 days for a gynecologist, 50 days for a cardiologist, 61 days for dermatologist and 80 days for an ophthalmologist. And that's assuming you are already a patient, or they are accepting new patients. Here in the Sud Touraine dentists, ophthalmologists and dermatologists seem to be the most difficult to get an appointment with.

Luckily for us we had already transferred to the new, youngish, English speaking GP in the next village when our old GP in Preuilly retired, so we have not been unfortunate enough to be left suddenly seeking a new GP.