” I suffer in silence “
“I am still not treated. » This sentence from Isabelle alone sums up the distress of patients faced with the lack of health professionals. This 56-year-old resident of Meurthe-et-Moselle needs to consult a rheumatologist, but there is none near her home. “Since I can’t drive, I suffer in silence,” she resigns herself. Like Isabelle, our readers tell the deterioration of access to care and the intensification of medical deserts.
When a doctor retires, integrating the patient base of another practitioner is a feat. Anticipating the departure of her general practitioner next July, Véronique has already toured “other doctors in the sector”. “None of them are taking new patients,” laments this 65-year-old resident of the Meuse. No one having returned to her dermatologist’s office, Sylvie, a 64-year-old from Burgundy, has “not been followed for five years”.
“Let’s wait 24 hours before treating ourselves”
To find a practitioner, our readers travel far, further and further. In Moselle, Paolino, 57, is already worried about whether “with age” he will still be able to go to the dermatologist he found 40 km from home for his annual check-up after skin cancer . Gérard, an 80-year-old resident of Chamonix, is in despair at not having found an ophthalmologist “less than 100 km from home. [lui] “. As for Christiane, she says she had her teeth treated “in Hungary, between 2016 and 2022”, because there was no dentist available near her home. “For the gynecologist and the ophthalmologist, I continue to drive three hours between Haute-Saône and Strasbourg, where I lived before,” continues the sixty-year-old.
Fewer professionals also mean longer delays in obtaining an appointment. “Eight months for an appointment with an ENT and six months for a dermatologist, so sometimes I give up,” explains Maurice, an 80-year-old from Vosges. For her part, Colette, 69, had to wait “six months to seek treatment [sa] decayed tooth.” “I am at risk for skin cancer, but I cannot have an appointment with the dermatologist and yet Gap (Hautes-Alpes) is not considered a medical desert,” he gets angry. She.
And if it is so difficult to get an appointment for a check-up or screening, emergency appointments border on utopia. “When a member of the family, including one of the children, falls ill, I never have an appointment with our general practitioner for five or six days,” describes Jonathan, a 40-year-old resident of the Loire. . “I am therefore obliged to play the card of ‘It’s going to be okay, let’s wait 24 hours before getting treatment’ and if the illness persists, head to the hospital’s medical center. » “And we are surprised that the emergency rooms are continually overwhelmed! », protests Bernard in conclusion.
