doctors are stepping up to the plate in the face of the multiplication of appointments not honored

Seeing his patient in the waiting room, Dr. Walid Mekeddem is almost relieved. Since his installation six months ago in Paris, the general practitioner has had to deal with a proliferation of cancellations. The patients not only do not come, but do not notify. “If for example I take yesterday afternoon, I had five. Five rabbits”, he confides. Two weeks ago, he expressed his frustration on social networks. “I feel like the king’s jester”he wrote in particular.

The bunnies are disrupting his schedule, and depriving the other patients. “Every day, we receive requests for urgent appointments, to which we are obliged to respond. [qu’il] there is no room. Finally, 4-5 hours later, we realize that there are 3-4 people who did not come, and who could have freed up their appointment for people who called urgently”, explains Dr. Mekeddem. From general practitioners to ophthalmologists, no discipline is spared. 97% of doctors face the problem of missed appointments. On the patient side, 31% of 25-34 year olds admit to having already posed a rabbit.

The phenomenon has accelerated with the rise of online appointment booking. To try to stop the problem, the platforms send reminders 24 hours before the appointment. However, some practitioners decide to limit their online niches.