Retired doctor returns to work to help patients in southern France
A 77-year-old former GP has gone back to work in Monteux to support a new municipal medical centre created to address a growing shortage of doctors.
A 77-year-old retired doctor has returned to work in the southern French town of Monteux to help tackle a growing shortage of GPs.
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Gilles Azalbert is now seeing patients at a newly opened municipal medical centre, set up after several local doctors retired and remaining practices stopped taking new patients.
“It’s a moral obligation,” he says. “You can’t leave people alone with their health problems.”
The centre, funded by the local council, prioritises older patients and those with long-term illnesses, providing around 250 consultations a week.
Patients who had been waiting months — or even years — for a GP say the service has brought much-needed relief.
Local officials hope the project will ease pressure in the short term and help attract permanent doctors back to the area.