As soon as it is pinned, the platform takes action. At the center of a controversy, the Doctolib group, a French heavyweight in making medical appointments, will strengthen the verification procedures for professionals referenced on its site, he announced on Thursday. Health professionals and patients have criticized the group for allowing its users to make appointments with naturopaths, some of whom have dangerous practices, close to quackery and sectarian aberrations.
Critics have particularly targeted naturopaths claiming to be Thierry Casasnovas and Irène Grosjean, two influential personalities in the field but whose positions are discredited in the world of health. While the first has already been the subject of numerous reports to Miviludes (the interministerial mission to combat sectarian aberrations), the second, aged 92, defends raw food, or “living food”, a diet consisting to eat only raw fruits and vegetables. She is strongly criticized for having advised parents to practice acts on their children which would be similar to sexual assault on minors to “bring down the fever”. In his case, like that of Thierry Casasnovas, their large audience and their influence worry the authorities.
Faced with the controversy, Doctolib had already indicated, on Monday, to suspend 17 profiles of practitioners claiming the methods or teaching of Irène Grosjean. He announced, Thursday in a press release, to have taken a “first series of measures (…) aimed at strengthening its procedures for verifying and reporting professionals referenced on its site”. For practitioners carrying out unregulated well-being activities, which represent 3% of Doctolib practitioners (including naturopaths) and 0.3% of appointments made, a dedicated team is responsible for verifying their identity and presentation card. “No appointment [could] be made on Doctolib before the verification of the right to practice is effective”, underlines the platform.
“Practitioners of these specialties have the right to practice” because “they carry out legal activities, which are registered in the commercial register”, still believes Doctolib. But the site claims to have “opened a consultation in order to better frame their referencing”.
Doctolib also announces the opening of a consultation with its Medical and Professional Committee, Miviludes, health professional unions, health orders, patient associations and health authorities, “in order to better supervise the referencing of practitioners unregulated” on the platform. This consultation “will give rise to a new series of measures”, promises the site. For its part, the Order of Physicians asked Doctolib on Tuesday to strengthen its ethical rules for registering on the platform and said it was ready “to participate in this essential reflection.”
A first update of the site’s homepage was made by explicitly mentioning that some practitioners are not health professionals, completes Doctolib. The company “in particular ensures that it is impossible for a patient to confuse between a practitioner exercising an activity in the field of well-being and a health professional”, he specifies.
In addition, Doctolib also announces measures intended for practitioners in a regulated health profession, which represents 97% of them. Since the creation of the site in 2013, out of nearly 250,000 practitioners referenced in total, the platform has been the victim on four occasions of individuals who have created false profiles by usurping in particular the identity of health professionals, the last two cases fraud dating from June and August 2022, she says. According to information from Radio France, the Montpellier prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “illegal practice of medicine” against two fake doctors who were registered on the platform.
No appointment can be made on Doctolib before the verification of the right to practice is effective, assures the site. For this, the platform has decided to remove the 15-day period, which was granted so far to health professionals so that new residents can open appointments before the opening of their practice.