The delays in having an appointment with an ophthalmologist continued to decrease in 2023, to 48 days on average, the National Union of Ophthalmologists (Snof) said on Friday in a press release. According to the 2023 edition of the study published every year since 2019 by Snof, the average time to obtain a vision check-up appointment with an ophthalmologist was 48 days, compared to 52 days in 2022 and 68 days in 2019.
The median delay was 24 days, compared to 30 in 2022 or 43 in 2019. To obtain a more urgent appointment, linked to the appearance of symptoms (blackheads, filaments, etc.), the delay average has for its part increased slightly to 8 days, compared to 7 days in 2022 but 27 in 2019, according to figures from Snof. The median delay was 4 days, compared to 5 days in 2022 and 10 days in 2019, the first year of this study.
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The continued reduction in the time it takes to make an appointment in 2023 is explained in particular by the development of “assisted work” among ophthalmologists, more and more of them (78% in 2023) practicing with medical assistants and orthoptists. or other professionals, according to Snof. Furthermore, the number of ophthalmologists is stabilizing, after the declines of recent years. “The overall workforce should start to increase in 2024,” according to Snof.
Two regions, however, are exceptions to this context of improvement. Pays de la Loire has a median time for making an appointment of 94 days for control visits, a clear deterioration (36 days) compared to 2019. In the Grand Est, the median time for control visits reached 61 days, up 3 days compared to 2019. Conversely, the Paris region experiences a more favorable situation, with a median time for making an appointment of 13 days for control visits (54 days for rural and urban municipalities of less than 20,000 inhabitants). The survey is carried out by CSA, whose investigators call as patients (mystery calls) to obtain an appointment. It was carried out among 2,435 doctors working outside hospitals, or more than half of the total workforce in France, according to the SNOF.
