You can now check how well your area in France is served by healthcare workers - including specialists and GPs - with a new interactive, colour-coded map.
The map was created and published by French public service broadcaster, FranceInfo, using the most recently-available data (2023) from statistical research agency DREES (Direction de la Recherche, des Études, de l'Évaluation et des Statistiques) and figures from the Ministry of Health.
It shows the level of access (e.g. close proximity by car or number of appointments available) to a range of healthcare professionals, including GPs, midwives, nurses, dentists and physiotherapists.
Discrepancies by area
The map also offers insights into discrepancies between areas, with more than 50% of rural communes experiencing a lack of GPs, in comparison to 28% of more urban locations.
In fact, France is above-average when it comes to disparities between areas, show figures for the OECD countries.
Other trends found include:
Coastal areas are better served than the more rural centre of France
Discrepancies differ according to the medical speciality. For example, access to GPs and nurses has decreased by 1.4% and 0.3% respectively since 2022, while access to midwives, dentists and physiotherapists is improving.
Colour-coded and interactive
The map is interactive, with tabs along the top that enable users to select GPs, dentists, midwives, nurses, and physiotherapists. It is colour-coded, with the legend reading:
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Dark green: Very well covered
Lime green: Well covered
Orange: Poorly covered
Red: Very poorly covered
For example, the map below (a screenshot of the map here- scroll down to view) shows mainland France and Corsica for GPs. You can click on each department on the map, which zooms in to a detailed close-up of coverage for each individual commune, town, or village in that department.
This map shows the data for GP coverageFrancetvInfo.fr
Clicking on a commune name will bring up extra data, such as the number of inhabitants, the number of that type of healthcare professional (e.g, midwife) in France on average, and the number of professionals accessible in the commune.
For example, the image below shows the department of Gironde, and the commune of Saint-Hélène (highlighted, in green). The data shows that there are 3,004 inhabitants there, and that this commune is among the 18% best-covered by GPs.
It also says that three GP consultations are available on average per year per resident in France, and that Saint-Hélène has slightly better-than-average availability of four consultations.
This map shows the data for GP coverage in Saint-Hélène, GirondeFrancetvInfo.fr
In contrast, another commune in the same department, Captieux in the far south (see below, highlighted, in red), is among the 23% of communes less well-covered by GPs, with two consultations available rather than the average of three.
This map shows the data for GP coverage in Captieux, GirondeFrancetvInfo.fr
Medical deserts
France has long faced issues with so-called ‘medical deserts’, in which many people struggle to find healthcare nearby.
A medical desert is an area in which patients have trouble seeing a GP (or a specialist) regularly, whether because they cannot get an appointment, there are not enough doctors, or because they live too far away from their nearest GP surgery.
The government defines the term ‘medical desert’ specifically as an area in which patients have access to fewer than 2.5 consultations with a local GP per year on average.
DREES has also previously highlighted that residents of almost 8,000 communes - 20% of all French communes - have to travel on average at least 30 minutes by car to reach the nearest emergency services.
The term can also be used to describe areas in which there are not enough GPs so patient time is very stretched. In this case, even patients who do get an appointment may find they do not have enough time to properly explain their problem and the GP does not have enough time to offer them a good level of care.
Around 44% of GPs in France have refused new patients, with 71% of them declaring that they already have too many, a study from consumer group UFC-Que Choisir shows.
