One round trip by air per week: facing the medical desert, doctors do Dijon-Nevers by plane

“No, it's not crazy.

It meets a need.

An airlift of caregivers was established Thursday between Dijon (Côte-d'Or) and Nièvre, a medical desert, despite criticism of the environmental impact.

Arrived in the early morning at the airport, they joined the Nevers hospital which they had to leave by the same means of transport the same evening.

This "air bridge" aims to connect Nevers at least once a week to the regional capital Dijon in 35 minutes, compared to nearly three hours by car or two and a quarter hours by train.

"The plane is the best way to shorten delays" while the Nevers hospital is, in France, "the furthest departmental hospital from a CHU", the Dijon University Hospital Center where doctors can be available, explained the LREM mayor of Nevers and president of the city's hospital center (CH), Denis Thuriot.

Read alsoMedical deserts, a real headache: what remedies for the shortage of doctors?

Pulmonologists, oncologists or other gynecologists are intended for the CH where there is a lack of “about fifty doctors and at least 35 nurses”, according to Patrick Bertrand, president of the Medical Commission of the Hospital Center.

But the small eight-seater single-engine also transported two general practitioners from SOS Médecins.

"We are going to set up a structure", currently non-existent in Nièvre, said general practitioner Romain Thévenoud.

“A palliative in the meantime”

"Our goal is to better care for the population," explained CH director Jean-François Segovia at Nevers airport.

“Medical density fell by 21% in Nièvre between 2012 and 2022. There are 68 doctors per 100,000 inhabitants compared to an average of 121 in France.

There is no dermatologist, only one rheumatologist, an allergist… 20% of patients have no attending physician”, he underlined.

Medical flights are "a palliative while waiting to attract young doctors", believes Pierre Trouilloud.

The traumatologist at the Dijon University Hospital has been coming to Nevers every month for 25 years for his consultations, traveling six hours by car.

With the plane, he now plans to come "every fortnight".

"There are requests in Nevers," he explains.

The airlift has a cost borne by the hospital, but it will in fact “save”, assures Pierre Trouilloud.

"It costs 670 euros round trip per passenger", while an interim doctor can ask for up to "3,000 euros a day", calculates the mayor.

1500 times more CO2

The measure, however, drew criticism from environmentalists.

"A journey by plane emits 1,500 times more greenhouse gases than by train", accuses Sylvie Dupart-Muzerelle, EELV municipal councilor of Nevers, who denounces "a coup de com' at a time when Europe validates the abolition of domestic flights in France when there is an alternative by train in less than 2h30”.

However, this measure does not concern private flights such as Dijon-Nevers.

"We must not oppose ecology to public health", however nuanced Wilfrid Séjeau, vice-president EELV of the departmental council, who sits on the supervisory board of Nevers hospital.

“If this solution turns out to be really effective, I am ready to accept it,” he says.

“Let's stop the plane-bashing.

Planes take off every morning with businessmen and you don't hear anyone shouting, ”defends the mayor of Nevers.

“It will help the Nivernais who have the shortest life expectancy in the region”.

“I am aware of the criticisms on the carbon footprint.

But you have to hear all these people who call 15, ”adds Doctor Romain Thévenoud, of SOS Médecins.

The establishment of a medical flight "appears all the more necessary as the rail link between Nevers and Dijon will be cut for at least seven months from July for works", recalls the socialist president of Nièvre, Fabien Bazin.