With the Covid-19 epidemic, patients go to their doctor less. The Doctolib site, which allows for online medical appointments, recorded a 44% drop in consultations among general practitioners and 71% among specialists since the start of the crisis.
"The frequentation of offices has collapsed since the beginning of the epidemic," said Doctolib in a press release, which mentions "a massive phenomenon of renouncing care" since the introduction of confinement. Since January, the number of consultations in general practices has dropped by 44%, according to internal data from the medical platform.
Compensation for healthcare professionals
The drop is even steeper among specialists (-71%), in particular among dental surgeons (-95%), massage therapists (-96%) and podiatrists (-96%). "If the drop in activity among doctors is clearly explained by the reluctance to consult during the period, the situation observed among dental surgeons, physiotherapists and podiatrists is different: it reflects the total closure of offices "Recalls the press release.
Heard Wednesday by the Senate Social Affairs Committee, Director of Health Insurance Nicolas Revel also reported a sharp drop in consultations, around 40% for general practitioners and 50% for specialists . Faced with this situation, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced at the beginning of April that he had opened negotiations with Health Insurance to allow liberal health professionals to benefit from "compensation for loss of income".
According to Nicolas Revel, this "financial support", still under discussion, will be "by order". The director of health insurance said he hoped to be able "to trigger a first down payment very quickly, if possible at the end of April, otherwise at the very beginning of May".
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