France's dermatology crisis: Patients desperate for appointments

Around 200,000 cases of skin cancer are diagnosed in France every year. Yet as more and more patients seek medical advice, getting an appointment with a dermatologist is becoming increasingly difficult. Half the country's dermatologists are nearing retirement, and only around 100 new specialists are trained up each year. Faced with this growing shortage, some are coming up with innovative solutions. FRANCE 24's Aurore Dupuis and Sonia Baritello report. It's 8am in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris. The local dermatology clinic is already packed. "I left home at 4:30am to get here by 6am. I've travelled 130 kilometres," says Jean-François, who has come all the way from Reims to have a melanoma removed. If left untreated, this type of skin cancer can spread beyond the skin and reach other parts of the body. To deal with urgent cases like this, dermatologist Romain Prud'homme opens up appointments the evening before, for the following day. "When I open slots at 6pm, the day gets booked up within three minutes," he explains. "You could open 10 more clinics like this one, and they would all be just as busy. The shortage is huge." Too few dermatologists, with ma...