Reach out to populations with fragile health, living in impoverished neighborhoods, to offer them screenings, consultations and vaccines. In Marseille, this is the objective of the “health village” installed in a park in the northern districts for four days. Around thirty caregivers are available to a public living in a medical desert, “who have little or no access to care, sometimes no longer have confidence in the health system,” explains a health service manager. from Marseille town hall.
Under large tents in the middle of Bougainville Park, a recently inaugurated green setting in the heart of a very popular neighborhood, dozens of people wander from stand to stand. They can test their blood sugar, get a more up-to-date vaccination, get a prescription for smoking cessation patches, or even an appointment for a mammogram.
A predominantly female patient base
“The idea is not to treat them on site, rather to inform them and guide them, or even refer them to professionals, we want to put them back on the care pathway,” continues the town hall manager. Partners in the operation, the AP-HM (Marseille Hospitals) and the Paoli-Calmettes Cancer Institute have blocked dozens of slots in the coming weeks for people met at the “health village”.
It is precisely for this reason that Yasmina Benhabib came by metro on Friday morning: “I need to see a gynecologist quickly, I have significant bleeding, polyps, but it is impossible to have an appointment before three months. » The forty-year-old leaves reassured, after having secured a consultation with a gynecologist at Timone hospital the following week. The vast majority of visitors to the “village” are women, encouraged by the childcare service provided.
The project was also born after the passage through the city of the “women’s heart bus”, a space for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In France, women are in worse health than men, according to Santé Publique France. The “health village” is open until Saturday evening.
