Last-ditch plan to ease doctor crisis

DOCTORS may be told to work for five years in the region where they qualify as part of a last-ditch attempt to end the problem of “medical deserts”.

Doctors’ professional body Cnom says it backs the measure “with a concern for fairness in access to care and taking note of the failure of incentives and the unequal spread of doctors across the regions”.

There have been concerns for years that doctors are over-represented in desirable locations like Paris and the Côte d’Azur, but are scarce in some other, especially more rural, ones.

The problem is also predicted to get worse, as insufficient numbers of young people are going into medicine, especially general practice.

Cnom said at its annual four-day seminar that the five-year rule should apply to doctors going into a full-time job and equally to those planning to work as locums or to foreign doctors gaining permission to work in France.

Furthermore, the precise location where the doctor will work should be selected in consultation with the professional body for the region and the Agence Régionale de Santé (body coordinating state healthcare), according to local needs.

Cnom also criticised the high fees charged by certain “sector 2” doctors (those allowed to charge more than the set state tariffs).

It said they should charge the fixed rate to at least 30% of patients - notably those on low incomes like recipients of aide médicale d’état or CMU-C – and where they charge above the rate tariffs should reflect “tact and moderation”.