To prevent his town from becoming a medical desert, the mayor of Barjac (Gard) is ready to spend more than a million euros to attract new practitioners.
No full-time doctor, long waiting times to get an appointment… Faced with the challenge of medical deserts, the village of Barjac, in Gard, hopes to have found a solution: the town recently acquired a house worth 500,000 euros with the aim of attracting one or more new doctors, report France Bleu and France 3.
“We are trying all means. With this house, we want something very attractive,” explains the mayor, Edouard Chaulet.
The latter counts on the assets that the house has, including a plot of land of 4000 m², a swimming pool, a pétanque court, a parking lot, but also a medical office which would accommodate several doctors.
One part-time doctor for 1,600 inhabitants
While the town had five practitioners in the 1990s, only one of them is still active and works only part-time, two days a week. A problem for the 1,600 inhabitants who live in Barjac and who sometimes have to travel tens of kilometers to find a doctor available within a reasonable time frame.
The fault, according to the mayor of the town, is the lowering of the numerus clausus which deprives rural populations of having access to satisfactory medical care. “Here, people (…) suffer and some die due to lack of care before or at the very beginning of their illness. I am angry,” the mayor reported to France 3.
According to our colleagues, the municipality is also considering modernization work on the property which would amount to 600,000 euros. “We can’t do better,” concludes Édouard Chaulet.
