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After sanitary failures in a dental center in Rouen, a union of dentists opposes the opening of new structures, until it is better supervised. (©Pixabay/Illustration)
This is one of the latest examples, which helps to redouble the motivation of the union of dentists dental union to control the emergence of dental centers in France. In January 2022, the Regional Health Agency in Normandy informed that a establishment of Rouen displayed “failures to the safety of care”, sufficiently important to recall the patients who had attended it. The poor maintenance of the premises and a lack of sterilization have been noted, which can cause (low) risks of transmission of hepatitis C and HIV.
For Clément Neveu, General Manager of the Dental Union, this is one of the various issues arising from dental centers, which are, according to him, far from all legitimate.
“Behind, we have to make numbers”
« [Les problème liés à l’hygiène] are part of the excesses that we find, it’s always the same framework. At some point, when there are not enough controls and behind it, you have to make numbers, you end up cutting corners on health. In addition to this ethics described as dubious by the trade unionist, there is a service that does not respond to the realities on the ground.
We dentists have nothing against centers. But when they appeared, in 2009, they had to meet the needs of people who did not have the financial means to go to the dentist. But since [la réforme] 100% Health [qui couvre entièrement les frais qu’impliquent les besoins les plus courants en prothèse, NDLR]they no longer hold.
Downtown facilities and direct competition
Another inconsistency noted by Clément Neveu: they are not located in strategic places. “They had to meet the needs of populations in need of dentists. However, these centers are set up in areas where there is a plethora of practitioners, particularly in city centres. “In that, deplores the Dental Union, they constitute an” unfair competition “, also because they are not subject to the same rules in terms of advertising.
They are considered non-profit associations and thus receive subsidies, but are managed by large financial groups, continues the dentist, who want to “make numbers, and more numbers”. This prevents Health Insurance from following their activity as closely as it does with private dentists. “A liberal has a number of his own, when a dental center has a number for all patricians”, making it difficult to “identify who is at the origin of the problem”, when there is a problem.
The position of the Dental Union is clear, after “deputies made a bill at the end of January 2022 aimed at better regulating the opening and operation of health centers”: “while waiting for strong measures to be taken, the Dental Union is asking for a moratorium on the opening of future new centers”, it is specified in a press release dated February 17, 2022.
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