Medical Transport: A National Treasure to Preserve and Reinvent

Medical Transport: A National Treasure to Preserve and Reinvent

Often discreet, almost invisible to the general public, medical transport is nonetheless one of the silent pillars of our healthcare system. France is in fact the only country in the world to guarantee its free access, fully funded by the National Health Insurance. This societal choice reflects a strong principle: ensuring that everyone, wherever they live, can access care under equitable conditions.

Behind this service lies a major financial reality: €6.8 billion per year. It is one of the largest healthcare expenditure items, just after salaries and medications. But reducing medical transport to its cost alone would be missing the point. It also represents safety, comfort, and dignity for patients, as well as crucial logistical support for hospitals and caregivers.

Real progress, but still insufficient

Over the past decade, regulation platforms have been introduced in certain hospitals and hospital groups. Similar in logic to large private mobility operators, they make it possible to track each trip, optimize routes, and better distribute missions between operators. The results are convincing: savings, increased transparency, and better resource utilization.

Yet these tools currently cover only 10 to 15% of national capacity. Digitalization remains in its infancy: few institutions dematerialize prescriptions, hospital platforms are still marginal, and real-time tracking is far from widespread. Despite local successes, public debate continues to focus on the “excessive cost” of medical transport, to the point where policymakers are considering shifting its funding directly to hospitals—already under significant strain.

Toward shared responsibility and more effective organization

Another path exists: merging prescriber and payer into a single entity, as already made possible by Article 80 of the 2017 Health Law through transport packages. This model would encourage hospitals to optimize not only the trips themselves, but also the associated administrative and logistical processes. By integrating transport resource availability into medical schedules, delays could be reduced and shared transport, already promoted by the Health Insurance, could be more widely implemented.

Technology also opens up ambitious perspectives. Interconnecting current platforms, extending their scope regionally or even nationally, and building a true digital public service for medical transport is now feasible. Such a system, based on cloud and artificial intelligence, would centralize requests, validate prescriptions, and automatically assign each mission to the most suitable and nearby provider. Information would circulate in real time between platforms and transporters, enabling optimization of physical flows and full use of pooling capacities.

With such tools, the annual growth of activity (+6 to +8% per year) could be absorbed without increasing the fleet. Ultimately, the generalization of platforms and a national interface under public authority could generate a reduction in expenses of 20 to 25%, i.e., around €1.5 billion. Experiences already conducted in several hospitals prove this point: thanks to centralization and digital tools, vehicles have moved from 40% to more than 60% effective use time, and stretcher transport has reached up to 85%.

Innovating in organization and sustainable mobility

Medical transport is not limited to a medical function: it is also a logistical and ecological challenge. Today, it still relies heavily on road fleets of ambulances and light medical vehicles, with a significant environmental impact. Yet it is possible to imagine a model that is both more efficient and more respectful of the environment, without compromising quality of care.

New approaches are emerging, particularly in the field of sustainable mobility. The Ecotrain project, for example, aims to rehabilitate secondary railway lines to better serve isolated regions. In this scenario, intercity travel would be carried out by train, then locally relayed by ambulances or light vehicles. Such a solution could provide both an ecological and economical alternative, while responding concretely to the needs of patients living far from hospitals.

Other solutions include grouping patients on the same route, when their condition allows, thus optimizing resources without compromising service quality.

Seen in this light, medical transport can become a key player in sustainable mobility. It is no longer just about ensuring an essential medical service, but also about contributing to ecological transition and balanced regional development.

Combating fraud and strengthening traceability

Another sensitive issue is fraud, to which the sector is sometimes accused of being particularly exposed. Controls already exist, but more can be done. A national automated system could, for example, allocate each patient a maximum number of annual transports based on their health condition. Beyond this threshold, a progressive co-payment could apply. Hospitals would be assigned targets consistent with their activity, and private doctors would be evaluated according to the size of their patient base. Geographic correction factors would ensure fairness, while bonus-malus mechanisms could encourage providers to adopt more responsible practices.

Finally, it is urgent to apply to patient transport the same logistical standards already common elsewhere: validated orders, start and end of missions recorded by code or geolocation, verification of patient identity and destination. Mistakes in patient or location, far from being an urban myth, remain a real risk. The French National Authority for Health (HAS) is particularly attentive to these issues, as they directly affect the quality and safety of patient care pathways.

A lever for innovation in the healthcare system

These different pathways sketch the contours of a new model in which medical transport would no longer be perceived as a burden, but as a lever for efficiency, innovation, and fairness. By combining digital technology, organizational innovation, sustainable mobility, and intelligent regulation, it could become a powerful tool serving a more equitable, efficient, and patient-centered healthcare system.

Medical transport is not a luxury: it is a choice of civilization. It embodies a vision of healthcare that is fair, accessible to all, and attentive to every citizen. The question is now clear: will we preserve and reinvent this national treasure?

This article was written in collaboration with Jean-Yves Gerbet, consultant and expert in hospital logistics & patient transport.