Chevilly-Larue, Val-de-Marne, France
I knew the time when there have been twelve docs and 12,000 inhabitants, now there are 19,000 and there are solely three of us left. At 98, Physician Christian Chesnay has no bother finishing his consultations with former sufferers he has adopted for years, generally their kids and grandchildren. It additionally receives many individuals with very low incomes and migrants. “I’ve 30% of arrears in my consultations, I can afford it as a result of I even have a retirement from physician and better training “ says this man who by no means wished to cease his exercise. “If we do nothing extra, we sink in a short time“…
This former welder, born in 1921, the son of a communist policeman of Irish origin, had a busy life. A science trainer from the 1950s, he entered medication by psychiatry, he was then a radiologist and at last a generalist, it was potential on the time, he explains. He additionally labored in the USA. Since 1951, he has been a normal practitioner at Chevilly-Larue.
What has modified within the follow of medication?
First the paperwork. “three years in the past, accounting and paperwork took me an hour an evening, now I spend two to 3 hours each evening “apologizes physician Christian Chesnay who estimates that sure recordsdata are at this time longer to fill than 4 years in the past.”Earlier than, making a incapacity file required 15 days. Since computerization, it takes a number of months “. On common, this 98-year-old physician estimates that he works 60 hours per week “I spend two hours a day studying medical journals, trying on the web for info, in order that I can reply my sufferers' questions “
– Isabelle Piroux
What he discovered is that he’s now seeing pathologies that had fully disappeared a couple of years in the past, corresponding to syphilis, gonorrhea or tuberculosis, particularly in his sufferers who come from Africa. What worries him above all is the variety of depressed adolescents who’ve ideas of suicide that he sees in his sufferers.
He who retired at 70 however by no means stopped working doesn’t set himself up as a mannequin. Sure trades are too strenuous to be exercised for too lengthy, he judges. “Thehe nurses can not work till the age of 64, in some nations they will develop into docs, which permits them to progress, however not in France. I used to be a welder within the shipyards once I was younger, clearly those that labored with me are now not there at this time “.
He additionally has previous sufferers who’ve needed to return to work as a result of their retirement is inadequate “I’ve a 78-year-old affected person who distributes flyers in mailboxes as a result of he wants cash. His spouse is sick, he’s compelled to pay dietary supplements to see specialists. “
To what does he attribute his longevity? Having by no means stopped mental work, he simply wrote two books “And if Previous Age was not a shipwreck, seniors get up “ and a novel, “We go to sleep in love, we get up … “And particularly the happiness of residing along with your companion he married ten years in the past. “It’s my rock, as within the Gospel. With my spouse Suzanne, I stay the very best years of my life.” .
