How to fight medical deserts? The Government presents its plan this Friday, April 25, on the occasion of a trip by François Bayrou to Cantal, with the heart of the debate the burning issue of the freedom of installation of doctors, some unions predict strikes and demonstrations as of April 28.
The prime minister, accompanied by ministers Catherine Vautrin (work, health, solidarity), Yannick Neuder (health), Philippe Baptiste (higher education) and Françoise Gatel (rurality) will visit the Calvinet Health House, in the city of Puycapel (Cantal), where he will exchange with health professionals.
François Bayrou will give a press conference at noon, before meeting with the mayors of the department.
The particularly affected Cantal Department
The accessibility “to general professionals deteriorated between 2022 and 2023”, due to “the fall in the number” of liberal professionals combined with “population growth,” said the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES) at the end of 2024.
Consequence: at the national level, in 2024, 35% of respondents “resigned from the lack of appointment”, against 27% in 2023, according to a study conducted by the Choisir of UFC -quisir.
A particularly concerned territory, the Cantal Department went from 160.6 general doctors per 100,000 inhabitants in 2010 to 139.4 in 2025, according to the National Council of the Order of Physicians.
On April 1, before the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, François Bayrou was favorable to the “regulation” of the installation of doctors to fight the medical deserts.
But in the Assembly, the Government opposed a provision of a transpartisan bill to regulate the installation of doctors. However, the flagship article was adopted in early April at the Palais Bourbon, the examination of the rest of the text is scheduled for early May.
“An unlimited” planned “planned”
This text causes the anger of liberal doctors, medical students, internal and young doctors. Lucas Poittevin, president of the National Association of Medicine Students in France (Anemf), launched on April 16 a call to “a national strike of unlimited Union as of April 28”.
The manifestations against regulation are scheduled for April 29 throughout France, while young doctors have appealed to a strike with the closure of the cabinets from April 28. Most of the unions of liberal doctors installed do not support that end. MG France, the majority union among the liberals, simply evokes “a closure of the cabinets for those present in the case of April 29”.
At the same time, a text carried by the Senator (Les Républicins) Philippe Mouler, president of the Social Affairs Committee, must be examined by the upper chamber as of May 12.
Source: BFM TV
