“Hit the wallet” to reduce the number of missed appointments, that’s Jérôme Marty’s proposal. The president of the union of the French Union for Free Medicine (UFML) slams his fist on the table for medical appointments made but not kept and asks for a financial penalty when a patient does not show up.
If many regions lament the lack of doctors, more than 28 million appointments are not fulfilled each year, according to the Regional Union of Health Professionals of Île-de-France. with our colleagues of the Parisian, the general practitioner criticizes the “lack of respect” of certain patients for not keeping their appointments.
Because this phenomenon not only impacts doctors, but also other patients. “This lack of civility is a lost opportunity for other patients who are desperately looking for an appointment,” he laments.
“Platforms have created a consumerism of care”
“Burning someone else’s date is pure selfishness. It’s even stealing their chance at treatment.”
“Six to seven million French people don’t have a general practitioner, due to lack of space. When they need to consult one, all the spaces are filled.”
The general practitioner also accuses dating platforms like Doctolib of exacerbating the phenomenon. “These platforms have created a consumerism of care. So I don’t care that we forget, that we have a setback, but today, online platforms send one, two, three reminder messages.”
A “symbolic” penalty
If he claims to seek solutions with the platforms, Jérôme Marty also makes a strong proposal to remedy the problem: “hit the wallet”.
Thus, he asks for a “symbolic” sanction, “of 1, 2 or 3 euros”, so as not to punish the poorest patients. He even imagines that these sentences are donated to a fund to remedy medical deserts.
Thus, he calls on the political powers to act: “We pose the problem, we propose a solution, it is up to the politicians to decide.”
Source: BFM TV
