POLITICS: According to Philippe Juvin, "the whole of France has become a medical desert"

Support from Valérie Pécresse and specialist in medical questions, Philippe Juvin visited this Thursday, January 20, a structure in Talant combining an EHPAD and a crèche. The Republican presidential candidate notably offers a “training shock” by doubling the number of doctors trained each year.

Advisor to Valérie Pécresse (LR-Libres) for health matters, Philippe Juvin (LR) was on the move this Thursday, January 20, 2022 in the Dijon metropolis. Unsuccessful candidate for the Republican primary, Philippe Juvin unequivocally supports the candidate for the presidential election by slipping into the shoes of a potential Minister of Health.

The blouse of caregivers, Philippe Juvin knows. He is a professor of medicine – a specialist in anesthesiologist-resuscitation as well as emergency medicine – and head of the emergency department at the Georges Pompidou European Hospital in Paris. Since 2001, the elected Republican has been mayor of La Garenne-Colombes, a town of 30,000 inhabitants in the Hauts-de-Seine.

A journey on the theme of health

On the program for the day, a lunch with health professionals, a visit to Dijon of the Georges-François Leclerc cancer center, a visit to Talant of the Robert Grandjean mutual residence and then a meeting in Fontaine-lès-Dijon.

The Robert Grandjean residence is administered by the Mutualité française de Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. It has three sites that make the whole an innovative place on the intergenerational level: an EHPAD, a Blue Village for autonomous elderly people and a crèche.

A delegation accompanies Philippe Juvin to the point that the visit of the Robert Grandjean will be done in a small committee after presentation of the health pass. Not all elected officials will simultaneously access all stages.

Are present Rémi Delatte (LR-Libres), deputy for the second constituency of Côte-d’Or, François-Xavier Dugourd (LR), deputy vice-president of the departmental council of Côte-d’Or and president of the federation departmental Republicans, Céline Vialet (LCOP), departmental councilor, Laurent Bourguignat (LR-Libres), opposition municipal councilor in Dijon and president of the departmental support committee of Valérie Pécresse, Sylvie Castella (without label), first deputy to the mayor de Talant, in charge of social ties and seniors, and Cyril Gaucher (LR), deputy mayor of Talant.

“Resuscitate” the health system

“It is a great intelligence to bring together early childhood, dependent elderly people and non-dependent elderly people”, notes Philippe Juvin after his discussions with the directors of the EHPAD and the crèche as well as with the coordinating doctor of the EHPAD. “The city of yesterday relegated them. (…) There, it is quite the opposite with a multi-welcome crèche.”

“Health has become a major subject. (…) Our priority is to ensure that the health system – which is collapsing – is resuscitated”, declares Philippe Juvin at the foot of the residence. “We can clearly see that today we cannot find a general practitioner. Trying to find a psychiatrist, a pediatrician, it’s very complicated.

The professor of medicine is worried about the postponements of care linked to the consequences of the coronavirus epidemic: “we probably have thousands of people who are abandoned in France”.

“The whole of France has become a medical desert”, launches the elected Republican, “there is not a commune in France which will tell you that they are comfortable in terms of doctors: general practitioners, specialist doctors. We also have a public hospital that is collapsing. There is no public hospital that is healthy. For years we lived with the idea that we had the best health care system in the world. When a crisis arrives, we realize that the crisis has revealed the state of major deterioration so we have to be concerned about it”.

The support of Valérie Pécresse advocates doing “the opposite” of the presidential majority: “she would trust health professionals in town. We would reinject caregivers into the public hospital. She promised 25,000 more caregivers; we’ll do it quickly. She will consider that health is not just city medicine, it’s not just hospitals, it’s not just EHPADs, it’s also the air I breathe, the food, (…) animal health. Health is a global concept”.

Suspense around the candidacy of Rémi Delatte for the legislative elections

“Valérie Pécresse asked her four musketeers to visit France at least one region per person,” explains Philippe Juvin. In addition, this trip to the Dijon metropolis corresponds to “the fulfillment of a promise”, Philippe Juvin having been invited for a long time by Rémi Delatte.

This maintains the suspense concerning his possible candidacy for the legislative elections of June 2022: “the time of the legislative elections, as regards the outgoing, will come after but I am in solidarity with those who have already been invested” (read our article).

Thus, among the nominations already announced, François-Xavier Dugourd, targeting the first constituency, and Valérie Grandet, targeting the third constituency, surround Philippe Juvin.

François-Xavier Dugourd considers that Emmanuel Macron is “fundamentally a single man” while “Valérie Pécresse has the strength of a team (…) and the strength of the movement at the local level”. “We need deputies who have local experience,” adds Philippe Juvin.

With the supporters and the activists, Laurent Bourguignat intends to “make a campaign of intense proximity” by being endowed with “the will to be as close as possible to the citizen”. “We are lucky to have a candidate who is solid who plays a lot on proximity,” supports Rémi Delatte.

Send “junior doctors” to medical deserts

Following the primary, the nominated candidate took up two proposals made by her then competitor: the fight against medical deserts and the doubling of the numerus clausus of doctors. Philippe Juvin thus claims “the end of medical deserts, the end of the impoverishment of the public hospital”.

To fight against medical deserts, Valérie Pécresse therefore proposes to establish a year of “junior doctors”, an additional year where, on a voluntary basis in 2023 at least, future general practitioners would carry out an internship in the territories where the ‘we lack health professionals. Philippe Juvin would count on relying on the professional territorial health communities (CPTS) to define the internship locations.

The presidential candidate proposes to increase from 9,000 to 18,000 doctors trained each year. A “training shock”, according to Philippe Juvin who estimates that “35% of hospital doctor positions are not filled” and that “in some hospitals, 20% of beds are closed because we do not have nurses or nursing assistants”.

A woman president, “an element of extraordinary modernity”

“I still don’t know after five years what Emmanuel Macron’s vision of France is,” says Philippe Juvin, anticipating his rally speech, “Emmanuel Macron is a conservative, above all he wants nothing move”. “France has become a communication agency: depending on the evolution of the situation and the supposed feelings of people, it makes announcements”.

“We have just spent five years with people who have no experience,” tackles Philippe Juvin. “We have to regain control of things with people who have experience”. And to enthuse: “this is the first real chance that a woman is President of the Republic, there would be an element of extraordinary modernity”.

Jean-Christophe Tardivon