Since then, on October 8, “around twenty” mayors of the department have copied this municipal decree initially taken by the PS mayor of Decize.
To alert and denounce the emergency situation in Nièvre, the PS mayor of Decize – a town of around 5,500 inhabitants south of Nevers – issued an order on October 8 “relating to the ban on falling ill on the territory of the municipality”, “under penalty of not receiving any medical care due to the repeated closure of emergency services”. “Any attempt at illness will be considered a violation of this order”writes Justine Guyot in this document with an ironic tone.
Nièvre, which is one of the most under-resourced departments, today has only four emergency services for just over 200,000 inhabitants. But the operation of these units is regularly hampered due to closures or regulations. In Decize, for example, access to emergencies had to be “regulated” in December 2023 and even closed for one day in February 2024, reports France Bleu Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. And from October 2 to 3, “emergency reception has once again been regulated due to a temporary lack of medical resources”.
“Nièvre is a disaster”
In total, since March, the emergencies of the Gros Bourg hospital “were placed in degraded mode or even completely closed on 24 occasions”Justine Guyot told AFP. There was then no emergency service in the entire department.”
Since October 8, “about twenty” mayors copied the municipal decree taken in Decize, like that of Montigny-aux-Amognes. “Nièvre is a disaster”summarizes for AFP Christian Perceau, mayor of this village of less than 600 inhabitants.
“We have huge problems with emergencies in Nevers. It’s managed by 15 in Dijon.”the regional capital about 2.5 hours away, “but there are errors…”underlines the councilor, evoking the case of his aunt referred, due to a stomach ache, to a doctor in a surrounding town. “When she got there, she found the door closed: the general practitioner had moved…”
68 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants
Nièvre has only 68 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants compared to an average of 121 in France. There is no dermatologist, only one rheumatologist, one allergist… and 20% of patients do not have a GP.
The situation is such that an “air bridge” was set up in January 2023 in order to bring a maximum of eight doctors to the Nevers hospital from Dijon, at least once a week.
In March, a collective of emergency doctors in Nevers warned that patient safety was not “more assured”emergencies operating with six practitioners, while 27 would be necessary.
France
