France Faces Growing Healthcare Crisis as Doctors Struggle to sell Practices, New Platform Aims to Connect Professionals
A deepening crisis in France’s healthcare system is leaving doctors unable to retire or find replacements, leading to the emergence of “medical deserts” across the country. A new online platform, Docunivers, launched in december 2025, seeks to address this growing problem by connecting healthcare professionals with opportunities for jobs, premises, partnerships, equipment, and patient transfers.
The impetus for Docunivers came from the personal struggle of Bernard Escande, a 57-year-old dental surgeon in Talence, near Bordeaux, who has been unable to sell his practise after 30 years of service. “It all started with the story of Bernard, my father-in-law: his difficulty in selling his dental practice, and more broadly this public health issue with in particular the problem of medical deserts,” explains Kirill Pluscheff, a lawyer and co-founder of Docunivers.
Escande’s experience is far from isolated. Forced to stop practicing due to health reasons, he spent a year searching for a successor, encountering significant obstacles. “A real obstacle course,” he laments,adding that even finding temporary cover during a personal medical leave proved difficult. This situation is echoed by many healthcare professionals in South Gironde and beyond. “I no a doctor in Gradignan, the same, who is stopping, and no one to take over his practice, and also a couple of dentists in Cestas… and that is not going to stop, given that we are going to arrive in a grandpa boom of professionals,” Escande stated.
The lack of viable succession plans is exacerbated by a lack of effective dialog channels.escande recounts being advised by the National Order of Dental Surgeons to post advertisements on Facebook – a suggestion he found surprisingly inadequate. “I was told to post ads on Facebook, I was entirely at a loss,” he said.He notes that many colleagues rely on social media for professional requests, but often receive no responses. “Despite our modern world, we find ourselves in a communication desert,” Escande observed.
The challenges extend beyond finding buyers. Escande faced difficulties even donating his unused equipment. He ultimately donated a dental chair to the Bordeaux University Hospital, which was in desperate need of one due to a breakdown. “I might as well tell you that I arrived there as ‘the messiah’…There is such a shortage of practitioners and resources today,” he said, expressing concern over the growing waiting lists for medical consultations and the decline of France’s once-leading position in medicine.
Docunivers,created by Pluscheff and Gauthier Torreilles,a specialist in IT web development,aims to fill this gap. The platform, launched in Saint-Maixant in September 2025 and online for approximately two weeks as of December 10, 2025, provides a centralized hub for healthcare professionals to find jobs, premises, partners, equipment, or to transfer patients. The founders, who also maintain separate professional endeavors, are offering free initial advertisements to encourage adoption, with a minimal fee for subsequent postings to cover operating costs.
“There have already been initiatives of this type, other platforms have been created, but none that centralizes all needs in the same place (premises, employment, equipment, etc.),” notes torreilles. The platform also addresses the issue of exorbitant advertising costs on existing platforms, which frequently enough discourage participation. “At this price, we understand that a municipality prefers to place a banner at the entrance to its village ‘seeking doctors’,” Torreilles added.
Docunivers offers a range of features, including job postings, premises listings, equipment sales, patient transfer options, and a searchable database of professionals. The platform is open to all medical and related professions, and also communities seeking to attract healthcare providers. Users can search by keywords, location, specialty, and contract type.
the creators emphasize the importance of building trust within the healthcare community and adapting the platform to meet evolving needs. They are actively seeking feedback from professionals like Escande to improve the user experience and ensure the platform remains relevant throughout a practitioner’s career. they have also not ruled out the development of a dedicated Docunivers app in the future.
The launch of Docunivers represents a critical step towards addressing the growing healthcare challenges facing France, offering a potential lifeline for professionals seeking to transition their practices and ensuring continued access to care for communities across the country.