Patients in France who fail to turn up to a doctor’s appointment without a good excuse will be fined €5 (£4.30) under a proposal from the government.
Gabriel Attal said on Monday that medical professionals reported an estimated 27m no-shows every year, adding: “We cannot allow this to continue.”
The prime minister announced the €5 penalty as part of a series of measures intended to boost a health service that is creaking under staff shortages, increasing costs and growing demand.
But the proposed fine was immediately criticised by doctors’ unions and patients’ groups.
Patrick Pelloux, president of the emergency doctors’ association, said: “It won’t work. It’s just a tax … and the end result will be that the health system will lose.”
Luc Duquesnel, who is a GP, told France Bleu radio it would be better to “educate people rather than tell professionals they have to tax them, which will strain relations with our patients”.
Attal said the step would be part of a law he hoped would be approved by parliament and come into effect from January next year. Anyone making a medical appointment would be required to give credit card details.
“If the patient does not turn up for his appointment without giving 24 hours’ notice [of a cancellation], the doctor would be able to debit €5 for them not showing up,” he said.
It would be up to the doctor to decide whether the reason for missing the appointment was reasonable enough to avoid the fine. Attal said the fine could free up 20m appointments a year.
But Gérard Raymond, the president of the French patients’ association, who opposes the penalty, said it was aimed at making patients feel guilty rather than responsible.
In response to growing public anger over “medical deserts” – parts of rural France and small towns where there is a lack of doctors and health services – Attal said the government would double the number of places in medical schools from 8,000 in 2017 to 16,000 in 2027. The aim was to ensure everyone had access to a GP within half an hour of their home, he said.
A trial scheme will be introduced next year to give patients direct access to some specialists without being referred by their GP and allow chemists to prescribe certain medication including antibiotics.
The French social security budget, which covers healthcare, is expected to reach a €11.2bn deficit this year, up from €8.8bn last year.
