“It’s not possible”. During his greeting to the caregivers of the Francilien Sud Hospital Center in Corbeil-Essonnes, during which he presented his plan for the health system, Emmanuel Macron spoke on Friday of the “chance” of those who do not keep their medical appointments and the “waste “. “Medical time.
“Our system, by dint of lifting all barriers to access to care – which is a good thing, which we are going to maintain – has relieved many of our compatriots of responsibility on occasions,” declared the head of state.
“Since health is priceless, for many of our compatriots it is no longer valuable,” he lamented, adding that “too much medical time is wasted due to excessive unpredictability, coincidentally, particularly with missed appointments.”
The president thus announced that “he will work with the Health Insurance to empower patients” and “eliminate this dead waste of medical time.”
A “big problem” for doctors
This observation is not new. In June 2022, The report of the Flash Mission on emergencies and unscheduled care already recommended “thinking of ways to fight resolutely against missed appointments by empowering the patient” to “return care time to caregivers (in the city)”.
The Regional Union of Health Professionals (URPS) of Île-de-France, which represents liberal doctors in the region, conducted a survey in July to quantify the phenomenon of missed appointments. The 2,000 liberal doctors surveyed in the Ile-de-France region said they had an average of two missed appointments per day “and peaks of up to 5”, according to the URPS.
“One in two doctors considers that this trend is on the rise and that it is mainly focused on new patients” and “for 79% of those surveyed, missed appointments represent a major problem in their daily organization,” he adds. the association on its website. .
An important phenomenon also in the hospital
On the French scale, one missed appointment per day per doctor represents 27 million consultations per year, according to the URPS.
Asked about this figure in September on Franceinfo, the Minister of Health, François Braun, reported that the phenomenon is not limited to medicine in the city: “in the hospital, it is the same. We also have consultations that do not come”. He said he was determined to “solve this ‘don’t come, don’t call’ problem.”
According to the minister, a last minute impediment can justify the cancellation of a medical appointment, but it is “inadmissible” not to notify the specialist in question. “During that time, the doctor could take someone else!” François Braun lamented.
What solutions?
During the URPS investigation, doctors in particular suggested establishing a prepaid or red list of patients who do not keep their appointments. For its part, the association called in July for “a national information campaign on access to care” to “sensitize users.”
He also claimed new features on platforms such as Doctolib, such as “the systematization of appointment reminders by SMS 24 hours in advance” and the “impossibility of making two simultaneous appointments in the same specialty without first canceling your first reservation”.
Another solution mentioned by several actors, such as the union of liberal doctors UFML: a “financial sanction” in case of non-compliance with an appointment. An option that the Minister of Health does not exclude, as he explained in September on Franceinfo:
“There is no taboo. Is it charging them, finding another solution…”, he declared. “Everything is on the table, I will never have taboos in discussions.”
The goal? “Prevent us from making three appointments at the same time with the same specialist and then choosing,” continued François Braun, who intends to involve online appointment booking platforms in the discussions.
Source: BFM TV
