Do we need new registration rules on the giant of medical appointments? The Order of Physicians asked Doctolib on Tuesday, at the heart of a controversy because it references naturopaths, “to strengthen its ethical rules for registering on its platform”, fearing “confusion” between health professionals and disciplines without a medical basis.
“Doctolib cannot allow confusion to arise between health professionals and people who are not part of the medical practice,” said the Order of Physicians in a press release.
On social networks, health professionals and patients criticize the group for allowing its users to make appointments with naturopaths, some of whom have dangerous practices, close to quackery and sectarian aberrations.
Doctolib’s criticisms have notably targeted naturopaths claiming to be Thierry Casasnovas and Irène Grosjean, two influential personalities in the naturopathic milieu but with discredited positions in the world of health.
3% unregulated practitioners
The platform references doctors, midwives, dentists, nurses, etc. (regulated health professions), psychologists and osteopaths (holders of a diploma recognized by the State).
It also allows you to make an appointment with sophrologists, hypnotherapists, naturopaths, professions with practices without regulation, but legal. They represent 3% of registered users on the platform.
The Doctolib group, a French heavyweight in making medical appointments, suspended 17 profiles on Monday and announced that it was undertaking “substantive work”, including in particular “consultation with the Orders, the Unions of health professionals, the authorities, Miviludes and civil society”.
He is joined on this point by the Order, which indicates that it believes “that an in-depth discussion must be opened between Doctolib, the health authorities and the professional orders to better define the framework in which professionals can be listed on the platform. “.
The state ordered to “clarify” certain practices
Doctolib told AFP on Tuesday to appeal “also to the public authorities to regulate these practices in order to best protect users”.
The president of the first union of liberal doctors (CSMF), Franck Devulder, went further, asking “the State to clarify the practices of certain professionals who sometimes fall under charlatanism” and the Minister of Health “to regulate the access to alternative medicine and to prohibit any publicity”.
Medicine “must be practiced within a course of care led by the general practitioner. The use of alternative therapies can be considered but within the framework of this course and with the rigor necessary for quality care, ”he added in a press release released on Tuesday.