Medical deserts are not reserved only for the depths of the countryside. In Mulhouse, the retirement of three general practitioners from the health center in the popular district of Bourtzwiller has left some 5,000 patients without medical follow-up. No doctor has taken over, only nurses and physiotherapists work there. A total of twenty professionals.
Launched several years ago to find successors, the search was intense, but in vain. “We never managed to find collaborators”, sighs Isabelle Willemain, 63, who practiced “for thirty-six years” in Bourtzwiller.
There are multiple reasons. Among them, the fact that Mulhouse is not a university town or the lack of attractiveness of this poor district, where around 15,000 people live, suggests Mehdi Kacem, a young 34-year-old general practitioner who chose to settle in another part of the agglomeration. To equip his future practice, the 30-year-old has just come to get medical equipment bought from his now retired colleagues. In his eyes, the approach to the profession of young doctors is also an explanatory element. “We are going to favor family life”, explains this doctor’s son, who says he saw his father “be completely absorbed by the hospital”.
In what has been her practice for the past five years, Dr. Willemain rewinds the history of the house in which she practiced with her husband and a third doctor. It aimed to reduce inequalities in access to care and to offer local medical coverage. But “we were very quickly overwhelmed by the work, which was nevertheless of a great variety and very interesting”, she confides. “At the end, we had 5,000 patients […] the last two months, we came home at midnight every evening, starting at 8 o’clock. It was hellish. »
Since then, their patients have referred to SOS Médecins, emergencies or unscheduled care centres, all establishments which cannot replace the regular follow-up of a general practitioner, underlines Dr. Frédéric Tryniszewski, president of SOS Médecins Mulhouse.
“What are we going to become? »
Now alone on the front line, the nurses are trying to cope as best they can. “For the moment, we are holding out,” sighs Céline Bohrer, 43. She manages patients who arrive “without a prescription for nursing care” and who are “forced to redirect to the hospital” in Mulhouse, yet “already tense”. And “before leaving”, the three general practitioners “made prescriptions over 12 months” for patients suffering from chronic pathologies, explains Isabelle Willemain. Just to ensure continuity while waiting for a solution.
She could see interns, headed by retired doctors, providing care, a project under consideration with the Regional Health Agency (ARS) and the Professional Territorial Health Community (CPTS) of Mulhouse. “They could take care of some of the patients, the time for them to find a treating doctor”, explains Dr. Tryniszewski, who chairs the CPTS. A project that should not see the light of day before November, or even next spring.
In the meantime, in her small home a stone’s throw from the nursing home, Jacqueline Schreiber is worried. “It’s scary, […] what will become of us if there are no more doctors? asks this 79-year-old lady. “Me, I still manage on my own, but there are plenty of people who are bedridden, who can no longer do anything. They absolutely need a doctor. »