[Demography of nephrologists in France in 2002]

This survey was performed using data generated by a mailing sent with the collaboration of regional coordinators in 2002 to all the nephrologists identified in France. 1326 nephrologists were included in the pool, with an average of 22 nephrologists per million population (pmp), ranging from 14 to 29 pmp according to the different regions. Their mean (and median) age was 46.6 years, 30% were female. 63.5% of the nephrologists were working in a public hospital, 19.3% in private clinics, 13.3% in non-profit associations, 2% and 0.4% in research units or with industry, respectively. The data were used to generate a register of all the French nephrologists. 47 retirements per year are anticipated between 2010 and 2019, which yields an indication for the number of new nephrologists to be certified in this time-span. The gap between the future retirees and the newly trained nephrologists is very deep and cannot be bridged with the currently operating modes of recruitment. The increasing incidence and prevalence of patients with end stage renal failure will considerably increase the need of nephrologists, which is all the more amplified by the recent modification of the French law concerning the weekly upper limit of working time for physicians. Urgent measures have to be taken for preventing the consequences of dearth of nephrologists clearly anticipated for the next 10 years.