2023-06-03 07:00:00
“For a mammo, apart from the clinic, there is nothing left in Nevers. The appointments are in July, hello stress while waiting”, “Meeting on July 27 youpi!!!”, “Meeting MT’dents for my son taken last week, I have an appointment in February 2024…”, “I received for me.. and my 2 eldest… impossible to find a practitioner… who picks up or who takes new patients …. and as a result, we consulted no one”.
The testimonials are not encouraging on our Facebook page. Regularly, Nivernais receive letters inviting them to be screened for certain cancers (breast, colorectal cancer, etc.), for children from 3 years old, to have their teeth checked before it is too late. But between theory and reality there is often a gap. Between saturated standards and very long, even extremely long delays. Especially for mammograms.
Our dossier Health, our emergency
Severine again testifies to this (name has been changed), 54, who has been trying to get a breast cancer screening appointment since early March. She first tries on Doctolib: an appointment is offered to her in Cosne… in January 2024.
A few days later, she calls the Lamartine center in Nevers. A secretary replies that the doctors’ schedules have not arrived and that he must call back a fortnight later. She calls back as suggested: all the lines are busy and a message invites her to make an appointment online. Severine tries.
I saw a slot available on June 9th. And when validating, it bugged and impossible to make an appointment.
A remake of the episode of the house that drives you crazy in The Twelve Labors of Asterix. In front of us, she tries to resume an appointment. We are mid-May. The site offers him a slot in August. It is far. But it worked: it’s validated. Finally.
Lengthening deadlines
Thaïs Zloczewski, operational director of the Soliloire medical imaging center, managing the Lamartine cabinet and the radiology cabinet of the Val de Loire polyclinic, in Nevers, recognizes a dysfunction in terms of making appointments. It ensures that a solution is about to be activated. “A service provider will answer after X rings. This is expected to roll out in September.”.
Beyond the technical bug, the delays are getting longer. And this is not a technical problem. The Nevers medical imaging center ensures that the average time is four to six weeks to have an appointment for a mammogram as part of organized breast cancer screening.
The example of Séverine shows that it is rather necessary to count two and a half months. For the whole of Nièvre, the regional cancer screening center (CRDC) evokes eight months of waiting. The Health Insurance letter is valid for two years. But concern can rise among patients.
Cabinets closed or about to be closed
Medical desertification is in question. First, radiology offices have closed or are about to close in Nièvre. Mainly due to retirement. A year ago, the firm on rue Dupin, in Nevers, lowered the curtain definitively. On June 30, it will be the turn of the office of Dr. Viaud, in Nevers. Not to mention that the Cosne medical imaging center currently no longer performs mammography for lack of a radio operator.
What future for the “small” hospitals of Nièvre? Elements of response with the director of the ARS of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The Nevers medical imaging center is already absorbing patients from private practices that are closing. Evidenced by the evolution of the number of mammograms, for example. In 2020, the center performed 7,186 mammograms, including nearly 4,500 screening. Last year, it was 8,857, including just over 5,550 screening. Of course, who says more requests says more time for an appointment.
Rabbits don’t help. To the great displeasure of Thaïs Zloczewski. “Just yesterday (the 22nd), I had five or six patients who did not show up. So that’s as many patients who are unhappy because they haven’t had any slots”.
Solutions for the end of 2023
With the forthcoming departure of other liberal radiologists in town, due to retirement, the situation should not improve. The Soliloire medical imaging center has anticipated. “We have been working for more than a year to find replacements: solutions are looming for the end of 2023. We are working with indicators, such as the age pyramid.”
We are not understaffed, but compared to the growing needs, we will not be enough
For cervical cancer screenings, the regional cancer screening center in Moulins believes that, despite the medical desert for gynecologists, it can count on midwives.
A low number of dentists in the Nièvre
Finally, with regard to dental screenings, offered by the Health Insurance to children and young people aged 3 to 24, testimonials ensure that the delays can be very long, due to the low number of dentists in the Nièvre. A reader tells us about a nine-month wait. Dr. Christine Gonin, president of the departmental council of the order of dentists, recognizes the shortage of practitioners. But make sure getting an appointment is doable. Provided you take charge and insist.
“There is a year’s delay to make the appointment so there is time. There is no discrimination between these appointments and the control appointments. Of course they would not be taken within a fortnight, but it takes two or three months for an appointment”, assures Dr Gonin. Who invites the Nivernais not to miss these dental screenings for children.
Jenny Pierre
1685784050
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