The Medical Association on Monday November 20 strongly criticized the SNCF’s plan to set up telemedicine rooms in its train stations, recommending them instead “To improve rail transport to the most remote areas” attract health professionals.
“The Medical Association can only express its very deep concern” is facing the SNCF’s project to set up telemedicine rooms in around three hundred train stations by 2028.
“This proposal will distract healthcare professionals, making them less available to carry out their work in the most vulnerable areas.”in particular the medical order predicted, which also denounces a new step towards “Financialization” of the health system.
Fighting medical deserts
The SNCF said on Friday, We want to use telemedicine rooms to combat medical deserts By 2028 there will be space in around three hundred stations. These 15 square meter rooms must first be installed in modular buildings of Loxamed, a subsidiary of the Loxam Group (construction equipment rental). Special modules for care were developed, which are used for screenings, particularly during the health crisis.
The SNCF explained that there will always be a nurse on site and that every patient “is examined remotely by a doctor practicing on French territory”. Loxamed plans to contact the regional unions of health professionals (URPS) to find nurses and private doctors to adopt telemedicine.
The doctors’ union UFML (French Union for Free Medicine) also strongly condemned the initiative of the SNCF and Loxamed and saw it as a new example of the development of a “very lucrative low-cost medicine” For companies.
“There can be no good medicine that comes from taking it at the push of a button and at the distance of a doctor who doesn’t know the patient.”criticized the union.
