Why doctor waits are rising in France and where delays are worst

Delays in seeing doctors are rising in many medical specialties, according to a survey commissioned by the Fédération Hospitalière de France (FHF).

As access becomes more difficult, respondents say they are increasingly turning to hospital emergency departments to seek medical help.

Zaynab Riet, head of the FHF, said the findings supported the idea that people want politicians to take action to improve health services.

“When our health system wobbles, our social links and the Republican pact slowly erode,” she said.

“We need to realise that, hidden in the decline of people’s ability to access healthcare, is a risk to our democracy.”

Dermatologists top the list of delays, with an average wait of four and a half months.

Heart specialists are second, with an average of three months and two days for an appointment, while eye specialists have a wait of two months and three weeks.

Delays for ear, nose and throat specialists average two months and one week, for gynaecologists and psychiatrists the wait is two months, for paediatricians three weeks, and for GPs 12 days, according to responses from 2,500 people surveyed in February 2026 by research firm Ipsos BVA.

In 2019, it took an average of four days to get a GP appointment, one month and one week for an ear, nose and throat specialist, one month and three weeks for a heart specialist, and two months and two days for a dermatologist.

The survey also showed that Ile-de-France, the region which includes Paris, had the fewest delays in the country.

Some 73% of respondents said they had either not seen a doctor when needed or had stopped prescribed treatments, citing long waits (59%), the cost of medicines and tests (40%), and travel distances (38%).

Hospitals are bearing the brunt, with 49% of people admitting they went directly to hospital emergency departments for treatments because they could not get them elsewhere.

More doctors needed

France’s health service has been under pressure for at least 10 years as a generation of doctors who started work in the 1970s retire, at the same time as the ‘baby boomers’ born between 1946 and 1964 begin to need more regular medical attention.

Medical training policies are now being adjusted to address shortages that built up over previous decades.

In the early 2000s it was common for around 1,000 first-year students to sign up for six-year degrees at certain medical schools, with only around 20 - selected through rigorous end-of-year exams - accepted into the second year. Those selected usually scored at least 98% in the exams.

Many of those who became doctors preferred to join state-run hospitals, with 35-hour weeks, decent fixed salaries which rise with time served, and good pensions, compared to the profession libérale status of specialists and GPs in the country.

Most regional health authorities now say they are training more doctors, but it will take an average of 10 years before they complete their medical training.

In some areas, departments are filling the gaps by employing GPs as salaried workers (rather than professionnels libéraux).

Despite these efforts, Ms Riet, a former hospital nurse, said it was time for a structural reform of the health system and called for particular attention to be given to women’s health and mental health.