The Doctolib group, a French heavyweight in making medical appointments, suspended 17 profiles on Monday and began “substantive work”, after virulent criticism aimed at the presence on the platform of naturopaths, a discipline with no medical basis.
Health professionals and patients criticize the group for allowing its users to make appointments with naturopaths, including some have dangerous practices, close to charlatanism, and with sectarian drifts.
Naturopathy is a practice that claims to maintain the body in good health through a set of “natural” methods, but which has no proven scientific or medical basis. Doctolib’s criticisms have notably targeted naturopaths claiming to be Thierry Casasnovas and Irène Grosjean, two influential personalities in the naturopathic world but to discredited positions in the world of health.
“There are deviations” and “they must be corrected quickly to reassure everyone” including health professionals, said Luc Duquesnel, general practitioner in Mayenne and president of the CSMF (Confederation of French Medical Unions) this Tuesday on franceinfo, about this controversy. “If Doctolib does not want to clean up its platform, doctors will have to ask themselves whether they continue to display themselves there to make their appointments. We are not there today, It’s still very much in the minority. We have to talk to this very practical company, but it mustn’t maintain confusion, which is a form of publicity and deception for the French.” he continues.
The problem does not only concern naturopaths finally explains Luc Duquesnel: “all unconventional medical practices are in the crosshairs. Moreover, some of them such as iridology or reiki are targeted by the Mission to fight against sectarian aberrations. We see people who present themselves as neurologists Brazilians who treat Parkinson’s disease by caressing your ears, and at the same time these people tell you that they are not under agreement, do not take the vital card or the blue card. They are charlatans”.