Reportage
Article reserved for subscribers
In the isolated commune in the south-east of France, an elected official, a general practitioner and a geographer have joined forces and their address book to counter the slow but sure deterioration of healthcare provision.
What causes a medical desert? In Vigan, a town of some 4,000 inhabitants, one of the two sub-prefectures of Gard, at the foot of the Causses and at the end of the Cévennes, there are all the ingredients for this territory to be a perfect medical vacuum: isolation, high number of elderly people, lost place with striking landscapes but difficult access, winding roads, few cultural activities and between sixty and ninety minutes to get to either Montpellier or Nimes. In short, the Viganais country ticked all the boxes to be cataloged as a “medical desert”, as there are more and more of them in our territory. The subject will also be on the parliamentary agenda on Wednesday November 13: in the Assembly, MP Guillaume Garot (PS) will present a progress report before a transpartisan bill calling in particular for regulation of the installation of doctors when , in the upper house, Senator Bruno Rojouan (LR) will unveil a report on medical deserts.
And yet, oh miracle, in terms
France
