Health: patients may now be forced to make a detour of up to 30 km due to sharing of medical transport
Patients may now be forced to make a detour of up to 30 kilometers in their ambulance or taxi to or from the hospital due to the future sharing of medical transport, according to the draft decree, which will be published in the coming days and consulted by franceinfo Friday May 3.
Taxis and ambulances will have to be shared, after a vote by Parliament last fall. This measure was passed to allow Social Security to make savings. The reimbursement of medical transport cost 5.7 billion euros in 2022, a sharp increase.
According to the draft decree consulted by franceinfo, you will now have to share your ambulance or health taxi with other patients, with a detour of ten kilometers possible per passenger, and within the limit of a total detour of 30 kilometers. For patients who regularly go to hospital, extending the return journey after dialysis or a chemotherapy session is frankly not a good idea, judges Bruno Lamothe, of the kidney patients’ association, Renaloo.
The association would prefer the decree to count travel time rather than distance: “A person who lives in Grau-du-Roi, in the Gard, 30 km from Montpellier, will take 44 minutes in winter, but 3h45 in the middle of summer, due to traffic jams to go to the beaches..”, points out Bruno Lamothe.
As for the wait for the departure of the ambulance or taxi, the decree says that for patients it must be a “reasonable waiting time“.”What is a ‘reasonable’ deadline?asks Catherine Simonin, of the League against Cancer and France Assos santé. We can see that in the emergency room, we can sometimes wait five hours. These are very vague, very vague provisions..”
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- Source of information and images “francetvinfo“
