Proximity meetings: in rural areas, health is not doing very well!

Olivier Biscaye, directeur de la rédaction, a animé l'ensemble des tables rondes de la matinée. Midi Libre – Alexis Béthune

Medical deserts, projects that are not coming to fruition, rural areas are facing difficulties, subjects of discussion at the Assises de la proximity organized by Midi Libre this Thursday morning in La Grand-Combe, in the Gard .

Who is not in a situation of medical desert these days ? The elected officials and speakers present at the Assises de la proximity et de la ruralité organized this Thursday morning, in La Grand-Combe, are all faced with the deficit of doctors and caregivers in their territory. Including a large structure like the Alès public hospital. According to Jean-François Lauze, president of the establishment medical commission: "In the Alesian basin, it is estimated that 10,000 people are without a treating doctor.

The public hospital is also experiencing shortages, its emergency department has 18 full-time equivalent doctors when the target number is 22-23. "Flow management is one of our big challenges. The establishment was planned for 25,000 visits, we will be at 50,000 by the end of the year."& nbsp;The essential complementarity with the Nîmes University Hospital is gradually taking shape: "Our regional hospital group is being set up, our objective is continuity and quality of care, from the Cévennes to the Camargue". If the deficit in pulmonology has not been resolved, the crisis in gynecology services could have been resolved thanks to these Nîmes-Alès links. 

Attract caregivers

How to attract caregivers to the capital of the Cévennes Gardoises is the work of the director of general affairs Pascal Westrelin. "We highlight this teamwork, and of course the quality of life in the area, the price per square meter cheaper than in big cities, access to nature just a stone's throw away, the facilities of a city like Alès. To paraphrase Michel Rocard, I want to say that the hospital does not have to develop the territory, but it must do its part."

Jean-François Lauze chairs the medical commission establishing the Alès Hospital. Midi Free – ALEXIS BETHUNE

The hospital management would like to do its part in the rebirth of the Ponteils hospital, in Haute-Cévennes, but the file is making little progress. "A fabulous site" according to Jean-François Lauze, "it would be time to rehabilitate it while keeping its old character, to make it a site for follow-up care and rehabilitation, a sort of downstream sector of our activities".

Claire Le Guennou, of Alesian origin and returned after several years in Marseille, is leading an innovative project to create a pediatric center. Probably too new, or not medically focused enough, the project is slipping. "The regional health agency refused us the status of pediatric multidisciplinary health home, so we is not moving forward because a certain administrative rigidity prevents success.

Claire Le Guennou, pediatrician, returned to Alès, her town of birth. Midi Free – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Tailor-made for rural areas

In the community of communes of Cèze Cévennes, around Saint-Ambroix, Olivier Martin had the idea of ​​a multi-site health center. "We are seductive, we mayors. I am mayor of Gagnières, well to convince a new doctor to settle in, I took all the arguments out of the living environment! And it was finally the spouse that I convinced. But we are not kamikazes and we must ensure the financial balance of the projects, when we are promised administrative simplification, I do not see where it is. Now I think that we need specific, tailor-made tools for rural areas." 

Olivier Martin is president of the De Cèze Cévennes community of communes and mayor of Gagnières. Midi Free – ALEXIS BETHUNE

Not exactly tailor-made, but a real helping hand offered by Thomas Janik, of Banque Populaire du Sud with a Zero Medical Desert Loan, launched on February 29: "We grant 20 000 € at zero rate, for health professionals who would settle or develop in a medical desert. Same very constructive speech from Jonathan Pejout, from Audition Conseil . "Paramedical players are very present in rural areas, with strong prevention activity. We are rarely called upon by communities even though we can be a supporting force."

The question of prevention makes Doctor Le Guennou react. "It's the poor relation of our health policies, but for that we need places nearby, to and fro… But if I detect a language disorder in a child and having follow-up by a speech therapist takes two years, that's a problem. We come back to the question of means."

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