Health system: vital prognosis engaged

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EDITORIAL. The bandages distributed by Emmanuel Macron during his wishes to caregivers will not be enough. A profound transformation must be made.

By Nicolas Baverez

After decades of endemic crisis, the health system is on the verge of breaking down. Access to care has become difficult for 51% of French people, due to medical deserts and disaster-stricken specialties such as psychiatry, geriatrics or gynecology: 6 million French people, including 600,000 suffering from chronic illness, are today without an attending physician. The quality deteriorates with defects or delays in handling, of which the saturation of emergencies is a perfect example. Caregivers are fleeing the hospital in droves while city doctors, impoverished and overwhelmed by administrative tasks, are withdrawing, which forces them to recruit precarious foreign professionals. Hospitals have no choice but to reduce their activity in the face of the lack of…