France/ Out of fear of medical desertification, this Gironde township uses all means at its disposal

In a few days' time, the village of Puisseguin will no longer have a doctor. Concerned for the future of their commune, the elected representatives are redoubling their efforts to find a replacement.

"You miss one person, and everything is depopulated."In the village of Puisseguin in eastern Gironde, the imminent departure of the attending physician - expected by the end of October - is bringing back to life the verses of the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, who died a century and a half ago.seen by the end of October - has brought the lines of the poet Alphonse de Lamartine, who died a century and a half ago, back to life.

Mayor Jean-Michel Pasquon, however, is not one for poetry. For some months now, the 78-year-old mayor and his deputies have been worried that their commune of some 800 inhabitants is becoming a medical desert, and that the village is withering away.

The village promotes itself on video

So, they are scrambling to find a replacement for the current practitioner, who is leaving the commune to set up in Génissac, 25 kilometers away. 25 kilometers too far.

The municipality has even commissioned a promotional video, published on September 23, 2023, extolling the local quality of life, to entice a GP to settle here. A first. "Posters don't do anything, but a video makes a lasting impression," says Jean-Michel Pasquon, contacted by actu Bordeaux.

In the minutes of the city council meeting of July 18, it was stated that a dedicated committee was to meet in the second half of August to "find more off-the-wall strategies".August to "find more offensive strategies in the search for a doctor", referring in particular to the creation of this clip.

We need to stand out from the crowd. We can see that the villages around us are also struggling to find a doctor.

Jean-Michel Pasquon

In the video, the color is announced from the outset, from the mouth of Marion, a mother of two young children, who settled with her family in the commune in February 2023: "If there hadn't been a doctor in the village, we would have hesitated to move to Puisseguin."

Recruitment firm appointed

The municipality is therefore pulling out all the stops. Before spending nearly 2,000 euros on a promotional video, last spring the town council called in Sophie Carpenet, the head of a Paris-based medical recruitment agency. She flooded social networks and medical school mailboxes. To no avail.

It's very complicated, we've had no response," she explains to actu Bordeaux. One candidate came to see us, he was received by an elected representative, but we never heard from him afterwards. General practitioners are a very rare commodity. Even in Île-de-France, they're hard to find. It's a national problem.

But the commune of Puisseguin is ready to bend over backwards. It is offering to pay the practice's rent for the first year and provide all the necessary medical equipment, purchased in advance.

"Shopkeepers are worried

For Jean-Michel Pasquon, the absence of a GP in the village would threaten the survival of the pharmacy in the first instance, and eventually of other local businesses: bakery, butcher's, grocer's, etc. "The shopkeepers are worried", he asserts.

Line Biaumet, who runs the pharmacy, readily admits: "If there's no doctor, I'm going to lose a whole patient base. People from the surrounding villages will have no reason to come. And without talking about sales, this poses a wider problem for the quality of life in our countryside, including for our senior citizens, who can't all drive for miles. What kind of future are we offering them?

A member of the "doctor search" committee alongside four elected representatives, the pharmacist is delighted with the involvement of the village's inhabitants in finding a new practitioner: "They have taken control of the video, which has become a tool that everyone can use, and everyone shares it. Even the youngest. The older generation, who aren't all on the Internet, are also touched by the process when we tell them about it. It's moving!

However, the promotional video still hasn't found the perfect candidate. One month after its publication, Jean-Michel Pasquon confesses that he hasn't received a single application. "We're in a bit of a bind," he says impatiently. No doctor has yet fallen for Puisseguin, despite all the chivalry. What's all this about?

Source: actu.fr/nouvelle-aquitaine/