In his general policy speech, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal expressed his desire to financially penalize unexcused absences from medical appointments in France.
The Prime Minister underlined the importance of this problem during his speech to the National Assembly, recalling that too many medical appointments are not honored. He highlighted the frustration of doctors with patients who do not show up for their appointments, and the exasperation of the French who sometimes wait months for an appointment while millions of hours are lost.
Every year, 27 million medical appointments are not honored, according to the Academy of Medicine and the Order of Physicians. Faced with this observation, the Prime Minister called for financial sanctions for these absences, starting this year. However, he did not specify how this would be implemented.
In the meantime, healthcare professionals are resorting to stricter measures for making appointments online. Platforms like Doctolib prevent repeat patients from booking a consultation, based on tolerance thresholds defined by healthcare professionals.
Sophie de Duiéry
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