“We are responding to public demand”: questioned by L’Express in August 2021 on the relevance of referencing osteopaths, naturopaths and other kinesiologists on its site, the general manager of Doctolib Arthur Thirion had kicked in touch. Exactly a year later, the question came back to him like a boomerang. Of course, it is not up to a private actor to decide whether or not these practitioners have the right to receive clients – one of the site’s favorite arguments to justify its policy. However, it seems difficult not to admit that the presence of these “therapists” in an online directory of health professionals amounts to legitimizing them and maintaining confusion in the minds of the public.
But, in fact, the question goes far beyond Doctolib. The order of doctors, quick to criticize the platform, struggles to evolve on the subject of doctors also offering their patients homeopathy or acupuncture. Some hospitals are opening up to these pseudo medicines, not to mention the universities which continue to teach them. It would actually be the responsibility of the public authorities to signal the end of recess, and to clean up these practices. While everyone is of course free to spend their money as they see fit, the almost total lack of control over these activities exposes customers to too many risks: loss of opportunity in the event of an undiagnosed or poorly managed illness. charge, control, scams… Will the controversy of the summer finally be the occasion to open this debate?
