Medical Deserts: More than 1,500 local elected officials call on MPs to vote for the regulation of doctors' establishments

In the fight against medical deserts, more than 1,500 local elected officials are calling on MPs to vote on the bill aimed at regulating the establishment of doctors, in a text published in La Tribune Dimanche on May 4.

The bill is being criticized by a section of the medical profession. On Tuesday, several thousand people marched in France against the bill initiated by Guillaume Garot, a member of parliament for Mayenne (Socialist Party), and supported by a cross-party group (from Les Républicains to La France Insoumise) of more than 250 MPs. The bill stipulates, among other things, that in areas with the highest medical densities, practitioners will have to wait for a colleague to retire before setting up practice there.

For the local elected officials who signed the article in the weekly, "because it refuses to give up in the face of the emergency, because it enjoys broad support on the right, left and centre benches in Parliament, this text must continue its parliamentary journey" .

"Our fellow citizens have high expectations: let's not disappoint them," they plead. "As grassroots elected officials, committed to the Republican promise of health care for all, we call on all MPs to vote for this essential law," they urge.

According to them, this proposed law "makes the regulation of the establishment of doctors, already applied to many health professions (...) the necessary lever of a policy to be carried out, moreover, on all fronts" .

They cite in particular the "continuation of incentive schemes" , "the improvement of working conditions in internships" , the "development of internships in community medicine" and "support for communities in their local policies for access to care" .

The government, hostile to this proposed law, lit a counter-fire by presenting its own plan to combat medical deserts, which was better received by private doctors.