The association filed an appeal before the Council of State to denounce the government’s “inaction” in the face of growing inequalities in access to primary care doctors, including general practitioners, gynecologists, ophthalmologists and pediatricians.
Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau said he was “annoyed” Thursday, in Releaseafter the legal action of the UFC-Que Choisir association which accuses the government of “inaction” in the face of medical deserts, considering their criticism “unbearable”.
The association filed an appeal with the Council of State on Tuesday to denounce the government’s “inaction” in the face of growing inequalities in access to primary care doctors, including general practitioners, gynecologists, ophthalmologists and pediatricians. She calls in particular for measures to regulate the installation of doctors.
“That we are accused of inaction annoys me. To let this idea float that, for politicians, people’s lives would be a setting in which we wander, is unbearable. I am not disconnected,” he defended Aurélien Rousseau in an interview with the daily Libération.
“For ophthalmologists, it’s true that there are difficulties” but “that’s precisely why we pushed them to agree to share certain tasks with orthoptists! We also moved on dental care” , he argued.
“No agreement to force a doctor”
In the Social Security financing bill for 2024, “we generalize the possible presence of dental regulation in access to care services. There is no inaction,” he added.
But the government is “effectively not in agreement with forcing a doctor (…) to settle somewhere. Because we are convinced that the remedy would be worse than the disease”, that the doctors would then risk to “change jobs”, he continued.
Asked about the winter epidemics, the minister also welcomed the “success” of vaccination against Covid-19: “There are one million additional vaccinations compared to last year, with a total of 3.8 million doses injected, 75% intended for vulnerable people,” he said.
Concerning the fight against bronchiolitis, he indicated that in addition to the “50,000 additional doses” of Beyfortus (preventive treatment administered to babies) ordered from Sanofi to “last the winter season in maternity wards”, the government had “been able to have 20,000 doses additional 100 mg for children over 5 kilos, intended for pharmacies.