For the vice-president of the National Council of the Order, the platform could compete with the healthcare access service, which must allow, for example, French people without a doctor, or because the deadlines are too long, to have access to remote consultations.
This is an advertisement that never ceases to shock doctors. For the past few days, the Australian company Ramsay, the leading group of private clinics in France, has been offering a subscription on its website: €11.99 per month for teleconsultations with doctors, accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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Faced with the outcry of the College of Physicians and various associations denouncing a “Health Netflix”, Ramsay had to make a point, specifying that this subscription first meets a need for the French population, those who cannot get an appointment with their doctor, and who sometimes just need a doctor to answer their questions, at any time, but without necessarily it being an emergency.
“A false good solution”
“We are waiting for answers“says Thursday, June 15 on franceinfo Dr. Jean-Marcel Mourgues, vice-president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians. For the vice-president of the Council, this platform could also compete with the access service to care (SAS), which should be generalized by the end of the year in France and allows French people without a doctor, or because the delays are too long, to have access to remote consultations.
“Is it logical to subtract doctors, when we need them so much elsewhere?”
Jean-Marcel Mourguesat franceinfo
“You have to see the economic model” of this service offered by Ramsay Santé, explains Jean-Marcel Mourgues, “that’s why we asked the Minister of Health to launch an investigation”. The vice-president of the National Council of the Order of Physicians assures that “this is not to say that telemedicine has no place”but denounces “a false good solution”.
Mutuals already offer this service
“We need to get back to basics“, explains Jean-Marcel Mourgues: “solidarity” And “no discrimination related to money” so as not to accentuate a “two-tier medicinewhich “is already there,” according to him.”Is it that [ce service] responds to the principle of solidarity, free access to care? We don’t have an answer.”
However, retorts Ramsay, this teleconsultation offer is not new: the Australian, leader in private hospitalization in France, set it up a year ago already, assuring in a press release that his offer aims to to propose “innovative solutions” to the difficulties of access to care and that it does not “does not substitute for follow-up by a treating physician”. Finally, many mutuals have also been offering teleconsultation services to their similar members for several years, without this having raised any strong opposition so far.