"We want the freedom to settle wherever we want": 500 doctors and interns demonstrated in Nice

"No to coercion," "Doctor, not a lackey," "Coercion = a false solution," "We don't regulate a shortage." Nearly 500 angry white coats demonstrated this Tuesday in Nice, as in other major cities in France. A large majority of medical interns, students, but also a few independent doctors already established in practices who came to express their strong opposition to the Garot bill, named after the MP who led it, passed in the Assembly, which would force young doctors to set up in areas where healthcare provision is most lacking. They also oppose the "principle of compulsory solidarity" that François Bayrou's government wants to impose on them, which would force them to work two days a month in an under-resourced area.

“We must support, not force.”

"We don't want things imposed on us and we want the freedom to settle where we want," confided a general medicine intern who took part in the procession this Tuesday morning after a one-night shift at the hospital. " And why not in a medical desert ," she said? "We're not against it, but we want to do it in good conditions. What's blocking these areas is the lack of attractiveness, and like all French people, we also have a family life to build, a spouse who must also be able to work in these places. We must also promote assistance for setting up, which has been reduced in recent years, and push for the creation of health centers in these places to allow us to work in a multi-professional practice so as not to find ourselves alone in charge of providing care in these areas. We must encourage and support. Not force! That's how we'll get there."

"The Côte d'Azur alone is a medical desert"

Camille is a young general practitioner working in a practice in Nice. This Tuesday morning, she wanted to take part in this outcry. "I find it absurd, even two days a month, that I'm forced to go see a doctor in a medical desert. What do I say to my patients? And the Côte d'Azur alone is a medical desert. In Antibes, the doctors who have retired haven't been replaced, and in Nice, it's also complicated in certain parts of the city. The solution is more doctors and a revaluation of our profession, which is becoming increasingly difficult. We need to encourage young people to set up, not force them. It's this kind of measure that undermines the attractiveness of private practice, which is already at its lowest point and remains the health system's first line of defense."

"We need more doctors, that's all."

"It's a subject that regularly comes up for us," explains Marc-Adrien, president of the Nice interns' office. "Most recently, we first had this bill that advocates regulating facilities in favor of medical deserts. Then the government lit its counter-fire on Friday, presenting as an alternative to the end of freedom of establishment these two days per month imposed on doctors in priority areas of the territory. And it's still half-hearted announcements! We don't need the government's opinion to know that when there's a shortage of doctors in a place, others go there. It's already happening."

Faced with these medical deserts, and the whole country is a medical desert, the only solution is for there to be more doctors tomorrow. For thirty years we've been warning that there will be a shortage, for 30 years we've been crying for help and no one is listening to the health professionals. And in the end, we find ourselves today facing this shortage of doctors and with the same false measures. It's time we took matters into our own hands with real solutions.