A few days before the launch of the platform to help with the installation of doctors, an update on medical demography in Lot-et-Garonne

The problem of the medical desert is a major subject in Lot-et-Garonne, despite the appearance of a large number of multidisciplinary health homes (MSP) and health centers (CDS). “28 MSPs and eight health centers have been created since 2009 thanks to Coddem (Departmental Commission for Medical Demography),” recalls Annie Messina, vice-president in charge of the elderly and medical demography at the departmental council.

Structures which have allowed the installation of new practitioners in the department, “but which are no longer enough”. “We are still short of general practitioners,” warns Annie Messina, pediatrician in Marmande. With a rate of 0.6 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, Lot-et-Garonne is well below the national average (at 1.2 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants). “To be within the norm, we should have at least one doctor per 1,000 inhabitants,” underlines the vice-president in charge of medical demography.

“The objective is to remove all obstacles to their establishment”

In a desire to repopulate the 47 with practitioners, the departmental council has been working for nine months with the Regional Health Agency on a platform aimed at facilitating the installation of general practitioners. “The objective is to remove all obstacles to their establishment,” explains Annie Messina. The system, inspired by that set up in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, makes it possible to support doctors on all levels (finding premises, housing or work for the spouse), thanks to coordinated action with around sixty of partners. Among them, the public intermunicipal cooperation establishments (EPCI), the national real estate federation (FNAIM) and the chamber of commerce and industry (CCI). “In the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, the platform made it possible to bring in 20 doctors,” points out the pediatrician, who hopes that the initiative, which will be officially launched on December 4, will attract as many professionals in Lot-et-Garonne.

Beyond the platform, which responds to an immediate need, the Department's medical attractiveness services also think in the long term, in particular through welcoming more trainees into practices. “An INSEE study shows that a young doctor is more likely to settle in a department if he is from there or if he has completed an internship,” underlines Annie Messina. Second axis: finding accommodation for interns to facilitate their arrival, but also encouraging high school students to enter the medical sector after the baccalaureate, “by supporting them from the second year and until the baccalaureate, in the form of student/high school mentoring”, concludes the elected representative of the canton of Villeneuve 2. A set of actions aimed at stemming medical deserts in the department.