FRANCE 2 – THURSDAY, JANUARY 13 AT 9:10 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY
Inequalities in access to care remain a recurring issue, especially in the field of cancer. In its issue broadcast Thursday, January 13 on France 2, available online since January 7, “Cash Investigation” looked into this problem.
The two journalists Gabriel Garcia and Julien Beccu have scrutinized, according to a precise research protocol, millions of health data on cancer operations. These thousands of lines of code, transformed into the average number of operations carried out by each establishment between 2016 and 2018, will be made available on January 13 on the France Télévisions website.
One of the main surprises was that few institutions follow scientists’ recommendations to perform more than 150 procedures per year. More seriously, in 2018, 812 clinics and hospitals operated on cancers without state authorization, “In any irregularity”, emphasizes Gabriel Garcia.
Risks of excess mortality
For Professor Fabien Reyal, surgeon at Institut Curie, it is “A real loss of opportunity for patients”. Because scientific studies are clear: the less the surgical teams practice, the higher the risk of excess mortality. These data are therefore essential for transparency with regard to the patient and for his care.
It is then in the world of dialysis, this heavy treatment to alleviate renal failure, that the documentary plunges us, with supporting testimony. No less than 88,000 patients in France suffer from end-stage renal failure, including around 50,000 dialysis patients. The other possibility, the kidney transplant, “Greatly improves life expectancy and quality of life, and also costs much less”, recalled a column published on the website of World December 22, 2021.
But, surprisingly, some hospitals prefer dialysis than transplant. The documentary follows a doctor who carries a hidden camera during his visit to a structure which dialysis a hundred patients every day … We discover the way in which the doctor, by “monitoring” the patients on dialysis, is paid for the consultation, which is supposed to be last twenty-five minutes, 40 euros. The investigation shows dysfunctions: doctors preferring dialysis rather than transplant, enormous cost for public finances, uninformed patients… These abuses in the management of renal insufficiency have already been pointed out on several occasions, in particular in a report by the Court of Auditors in 2015.
Finally, this documentary addresses the issue of medical deserts, which would concern eight million French people, a sea serpent for years … This creates deep inequalities in access to healthcare and health. A real subject for a presidential campaign under the influence of Covid-19 …
Freedom, health, inequalities, by Gabriel Garcia and Julien Beccu (Fr., 2021, 104 min). On France.tv until January 20.