General practitioner, specialist… “Finding a doctor is an obstacle course! »

We are not taking new patients. “Sorry, the reservation is not possible”. “No online availability”. Whether you live in a big city, on the outskirts of town or in a rural environment, medical desertification is gaining ground in France, and finding a doctor is for many the Stations of the Cross.

Whether to consult a general practitioner or a specialist, the readers of 20 minutes who responded to our call share their struggles to find medical appointments.

“We find ourselves traveling 50 km for an appointment with the dermatologist”

After moving, Nelly never managed to find a doctor. “However, we chose to live in the city precisely to take advantage of all the amenities, including access to healthcare. As a result, we had to keep our family doctor from our former place of residence, and we find ourselves traveling 50 km for an appointment with the dermatologist or the ophthalmologist when we only found that on Doctolib. It’s hellish! Ditto for Devi, who lives in a rural area and generally has to “wait two months to see [sa] generalist. As for the specialists, it’s worse: impossible to find a gynecologist or an appointment with the ophthalmologist. And I have to get a tooth pulled, but there’s no room until January. Result: I often drive two to four hours round trip to consult in the large university hospitals in the region, which generates stress, a waste of time and an additional financial cost. It’s exhausting “.

Emeline, who has just moved to Angoulême, in Charente, encounters the same difficulties. “I searched in vain for weeks for a general practitioner and a dentist. My spouse, he has to go to Bordeaux, 100 km away, to consult. No general practitioner in the department accepted us, I found a place in a practice 55 km from my home. And it’s the same for my colleagues. I lived in other departments before, but I never knew that”.

“There are departures of doctors, but never arrivals”

When Nicolas, 36, noticed a suspicious mole on his skin, his attending physician offered him an appointment within two and a half months. “So I made an appointment with a doctor 45 minutes from my home, to be able to consult a dermatologist immediately, who has scheduled an ablation before the end of the year. But if I had waited for a place with my doctor, how would this mole have evolved? »

Residing in Seine-et-Marne, Mary knows it, she lives in a medical desert. “When I arrived five years ago, a new doctor moved in, after a few days, he was already taking no more new patients! And since then, there have been departures but never again arrivals. We build medical centers whose premises do not find takers, she despairs. Result, today, in the best case, I have to wait at least fifteen days for an appointment with my general practitioner, but for the pediatrician, I have to do it three to four months in advance. So if my child has gastro or otitis, I go through applications for teleconsultations with practitioners anywhere in France”.

“Even in Paris, it is impossible to find a treating doctor”

And the big cities are not spared by the non-replacement of doctors who retire. Like Louisa: “My general practitioner retired last December, and even living in Paris, it is impossible to find a general practitioner. Yet I see free slots on Doctolib, but doctors are no longer taking new patients, it’s infuriating. I did not think that even in town, the situation was so critical”.

And the observation is the same in other large cities. Linda sees him in Nice, where she lives. “It’s hard to believe that in this city, you have to wait two to three months for an appointment with your GP, and yet! In his “expanding neighborhood, there are only two doctors left, who have not been taking new patients for a few years”.

“I gave up seeking treatment”

Faced with this situation, some make a radical choice. “I gave up seeking treatment,” says Véronique. I have just called twenty-one general practitioners, without success, and for a specialist, we quickly reach a one-year wait. Between those who have retired and the others who saturate, it is mission impossible in Ardèche, even when looking for 30 km around. It is scary this shortage of doctors in a country like France ”.

It is not Christophe who will say the opposite. “Four years ago, my GP went out of business without warning. Since then, I have opted for system D: I manage on my own, since no doctor is taking new patients in the sector, ”continues the one who also skipped the ophthalmologist, for lack of an appointment. available. “I decided to do without it, my sight has no choice but to adapt. And when you see the solutions proposed by Emmanuel Macron, it is better not to get sick! »

In the meantime, promote the cumulation of employment and retirement of doctors

Faced with growing medical desertification without any solution emerging in the short term, the Head of State Emmanuel Macron has decided to call on doctors of retirement age to continue to practice in cumulative employment retirement. “All the doctors who are about to retire, we will allow them to [la] retire, but [s’ils le souhaitent] to be able to continue their activity and keep all the income that is theirs, for them, without paying new pension contributions, ”he offered Wednesday evening on the set of the show. The event.

Eric, general practitioner in Mayenne, “retired for three years”, did not wait for this call to fill the gaps. “I work in a local medical service. We are several doctors in cumulated retirement employment to provide this service, which allows access to care in this department lacking practitioners. We see between 75 and 100 patients a day, five days a week.” When is a little rest for him?