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Patients received on line in less than 5 minutes, expensive and unnecessary examinations… “Further investigation” in a health center with questionable practices
Patients received on line in less than 5 minutes, expensive and unnecessary examinations… “Further investigation” in a health center with questionable practices
(ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
Race for profit, botched consultations, Social Security fraud: when the health center system goes out of control, public finances and patients suffer. In this extract from “Additional investigation”, the journalists, alerted to bad practices in force in one of these establishments, went to the site with a hidden camera.
According to Health Insurance, 150 health center checks are underway but France has almost 3,000. Are some establishments slipping through the cracks?
From 8 a.m., in this health center where a “Additional Investigation” team filmed with a hidden camera, corridors and waiting rooms are crowded. This is particularly the case in front of the dermatologist’s office which, according to their source, receives a very high number of patients. The journalist will try to find out more, using the excuse of having some moles to examine.
Up to 90 patients per day for the dermatologist
After two and a half hours of waiting among walk-in patients, his turn finally arrives. It’s late, 8 p.m., but according to the dermatologist, “That’s nothing.” She says she is used to working “until midnight, 1 a.m.” in Week. That day, she had 66 patients to see, but again, “it’s nothing : It’s from 80 onwards that it’s a bit hard.” The dermatologist says she can accommodate up to 90 per day. Apparently, she also consults on Sundays, “which becomes loaded”, according to her.
General practitioners who consult in less than 5 minutes
More seriously, the quality of care in this center also leaves something to be desired. The “Complementary investigation” team made three appointments with a general practitioner, which were filmed on a hidden camera. During the first, in two minutes, the requested medical certificate is issued without any examination. For the second, the journalist complains of an imaginary sore throat and is ordered, in 3 minutes 30, an antibiotic. The last consultation tested takes place in exactly 4 minutes 40 minutes. The doctor very quickly offers the fake patient, who is simulating a flu-like illness, a respiratory function test (EFR).
An expensive exam “of which we don’t really see the point”
Is this costly investigation necessary in such a case? “Additional investigation” asked the question to Hélène Colombani, the president of the Federation of health centers. In this situation, without a history search or suspicion of asthma, in the middle of a viral episode moreover, she doesn’t “I don’t really see the point, except to carry out an act which has an interesting price”.
What does she think of the images filmed in the center, and of these three consultations of less than 5 minutes each? “We can clearly see that the way these centers operate is not focused on quality and patient safety. It takes time to see the patients, do an interview, do a clinical examination… For me, that doesn’t work. is a health center in name only, in fact”, she concludes.
Questioned on discreet camera (the center management refused the magazine’s interview requests), the medical director denies that paces are imposed on caregivers. However, he does not deny that the fee-for-service payment practiced by the establishment could lead some of them to increase the number of consultations to improve their remuneration…
Extract from “Health centers: profits on prescription”, a document to see in “Additional investigation” on the 14th March 2024.
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