Chapter 967: Scaled-Down Universal Healthcare System
Perna blinked her sparkling eyes. "Wh-why?" she asked.
"Human nature," Joseph said, carefully choosing his words. "You must remember, human nature is always selfish.
"For example, the low-cost medicine you mentioned. People would immediately feign illness to buy it in bulk, then turn around and sell it to pharmacies for a profit. The hospital's medicine stock would quickly be depleted."
Perna froze for a moment, then slowly nodded. "You're right. It seems people will have to buy medicine from pharmacies, and the makeshift hospitals will only handle diagnoses and treatment."
She then smiled again. "Even so, it would still save people a lot of money."
The medical model of this era was still dominated by private practices. Doctors made house calls, and their fees were naturally quite steep.
Joseph sighed, shaking his head once more. "I'm afraid that won't work either. According to your plan, these makeshift hospitals would barely make any profit, so the doctors' salaries would inevitably be very low."
Perna nodded. "That's true. Doctors would earn 65 francs a month, and nurses 28 francs."
"Such meager income wouldn't allow them to maintain their integrity," Joseph stated.
"Oh, it wouldn't even be surprising if they started renting out hospital beds and tents directly.
"Ultimately, people would find that getting treatment at a makeshift hospital wasn't much cheaper than seeing other doctors."
He looked at Perna, who was now stunned, but continued to explain. "In truth, even if everyone were selfless saints, your ideal outcome still wouldn't be achievable.
"One such makeshift hospital could serve at most two thousand people. Paris has six to seven hundred thousand residents, meaning over 300 makeshift hospitals would be needed. Setting aside the fact that building these hospitals would cost over 800,000 francs, simply recruiting one doctor for each hospital, totaling 300 doctors, would be impossible.
"And this is just for Paris..."
Perna instantly became utterly disheartened.
She had thought she found an ingenious way for the poor to afford medical care, but after hearing the Crown Prince's words, she realized how naive her ideas were.
After a moment, she looked at Joseph as if seeking salvation. "Your Highness, is there truly no other way?"
'The Crown Prince is practically omnipotent,' she thought.
Joseph, too, felt quite helpless.
To be honest, he was very keen on establishing a universal healthcare system.
After all, population had always been a core indicator of national strength.
The larger the population, the stronger a nation's productivity and military might.
Especially in the early stages of industrialization, the demand for labor was virtually endless.
Furthermore, France had acquired several new territories in recent years, all of which needed to be populated by its own citizens to truly assimilate them.
To increase the population, there were only two paths: boosting the birth rate and lowering the mortality rate.
Medical conditions in this era were absolutely appalling.
Typically, professional doctors were only found in large cities, and their consultation fees were exorbitant, primarily serving nobles and the wealthy. Common people largely relied on resilience and prayer when they fell ill.
Church hospitals, you ask? Those were places for isolating contagious patients, where the method of treatment was simply more professional prayer.
As for rural areas, medical care was often handled by barbers, who would bleed patients after collecting a fee, regardless of whether it helped or harmed.
If a universal healthcare system could truly be rolled out, it would undoubtedly lead to an exponential decrease in France's unnatural mortality rate.
To say nothing else, if every village had a doctor simply telling parents not to let their children drink dirty water when suffering from dysentery, thousands of children's lives could be saved each year.
However, given France's current foundational conditions, short of divine intervention, it would be impossible for anyone to build a hospital in every village.
Historically, even the most developed nation, Britain, only began implementing a "rural hospital" system half a century later, leveraging the immense national power brought by industrialization.
Joseph put down his cutlery and patiently analyzed the situation for Perna. "This, I'm afraid, would be very difficult...
"Firstly, while makeshift hospitals are cheap to build, rolling them out nationwide would require an investment of at least 40 million francs, which the national treasury simply cannot afford.
"Moreover, I estimate that's still far from enough. Because doing the same thing in remote areas can easily cost twice as much as in Paris.
"Secondly, we simply don't have that many doctors."
Currently, fewer than 300 people in France receive medical licenses each year. That's not even enough for major cities, let alone the countryside.
Joseph continued, "Even if we did manage to train enough doctors, most of them wouldn't be willing to go to the countryside."
Perna's gaze dimmed. She realized that as the dean of the Royal Military Medical University, she bore some responsibility for not having trained more qualified doctors.
Camelia, the layman, mumbled somewhat reluctantly, "If only people could get treated even without hospitals and doctors."
Joseph couldn't help but chuckle. "If all of those are gone, then how can..."
He stopped mid-sentence. 'Wait, why can't people get treated without hospitals and doctors?'
'Didn't the Eastern countries achieve exactly that in the sixties and seventies?'
He practically blurted out, "Barefoot doctors!"
The term "barefoot doctor" even carried a derogatory connotation in later generations, giving the impression of treating human life like wild grass.
But Joseph knew very well that in the Eastern nations, during a time when they lacked funds and doctors after their founding, this "make-do medical care" model had saved countless lives.
France's current situation was very similar to that of the Eastern nations back then. So, he just needed to copy the optimal solution they had developed in later generations.
The two girls sitting beside him immediately looked over.
"Did you just say... doctors without shoes?"
"Who is that doctor?"
A smile appeared on Joseph's face. "That's not a person, but a medical system.
"We've all been too fixated on formalities.
"In reality, a person with only basic medical knowledge can diagnose nearly half of common ailments.
"If you also give them a manual listing the clinical features of various diseases and what medications to use for treatment, they could even treat over 70% of illnesses."
Perna's eyes brightened. "Yes, even a 'doctor' with mediocre skills is far better than no doctor at all.
"If we only train basic medical knowledge, a quick-witted person could learn enough in just a month.
"This way, we could train a large number of people capable of treating simple illnesses in a short amount of time."
Joseph felt the name "barefoot doctor" was a bit awkward, so he adapted it to French sensibilities. "We can call them 'quasi-doctors.'
"In each village, we could select a literate, sharp-minded individual for training, entrusting them with medical care for their own village—they could even do it part-time.
"And the 'hospital' would simply be a room in their home."
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