France to fine patients €5 for missing GP appointments
Proposed penalty, intended to boost creaking health service, is criticised by doctors’ unions and patients’ groups
Patients in France
who fail to turn up to a doctor’s appointment without a good excuse
will be fined €5 (£4.30) under a proposal from the government.
Gabriel
Attal said on Monday that medical professionals reported an estimated
27m no-shows every year, adding: “We cannot allow this to continue.”
The
prime minister announced the €5 penalty as part of a series of measures
intended to boost a health service that is creaking under staff
shortages, increasing costs and growing demand.
But the proposed fine was immediately criticised by doctors’ unions and patients’ groups.
Patrick
Pelloux, president of the emergency doctors’ association, said: “It
won’t work. It’s just a tax … and the end result will be that the health
system will lose.”
Luc Duquesnel, who is a GP, told France Bleu radio it would be better to
“educate people rather than tell professionals they have to tax them,
which will strain relations with our patients”.
Attal said the step would be part of a law he
hoped would be approved by parliament and come into effect from January
next year. Anyone making a medical appointment would be required to give
credit card details.
“If the patient does not
turn up for his appointment without giving 24 hours’ notice [of a
cancellation], the doctor would be able to debit €5 for them not showing
up,” he said.
It would be up to the doctor to decide whether the
reason for missing the appointment was reasonable enough to avoid the
fine. Attal said the fine could free up 20m appointments a year.
But
Gérard Raymond, the president of the French patients’ association, who
opposes the penalty, said it was aimed at making patients feel guilty
rather than responsible.
In response to growing
public anger over “medical deserts” – parts of rural France and small
towns where there is a lack of doctors and health services – Attal said
the government would double the number of places in medical schools from
8,000 in 2017 to 16,000 in 2027. The aim was to ensure everyone had
access to a GP within half an hour of their home, he said.
A
trial scheme will be introduced next year to give patients direct
access to some specialists without being referred by their GP and allow
chemists to prescribe certain medication including antibiotics.
The
French social security budget, which covers healthcare, is expected to
reach a €11.2bn deficit this year, up from €8.8bn last year
