The first union of specialist doctors, Avenir Spé, offers a new consultation allowing specialists to refer a patient directly to one of their peers, without going through the general practitioner.
- Avenir Spé, the first union of specialist doctors, offers a new consultation allowing a patient to be referred directly to a specialist, without going through the general practitioner.
- The patient could be referred by a specialist, a paramedical caregiver (physiotherapists, nurses, midwives) or even a referent person – such as a family caregiver – for dependent or vulnerable patients.
- The objective is, according to Avenir Spé, to facilitate access to care in a context where waiting times are sometimes long.
To access a specialist, you must go through the general practitioner. A care pathway that wants to simplify Avenir Spéthe first union of specialist doctors in France. The idea, presented during the Specialized Medicine Meetings 2024 organized in Lille on October 3, 4 and 5, is the following: a new consultation to refer a patient to a specialist without going through the general practitioner.
A consultation for 60 euros without going to the general practitioner
Avenir Spé offers different players:
- The specialists
- Paramedical caregivers (physiotherapists, nurses, midwives)
- Referral people – such as a family caregiver – for dependent or vulnerable patients
According to Agence France Presse (AFP), this consultation would be billed at 60 euros and possible only as part of “unscheduled care” or a “rapid opinion” request”. Therefore, the specialists to whom these patients are referred must commit to respecting deadlines to make an appointment:
- four days for an unscheduled treatment
- three-four weeks for a specialist opinion
General practitioners are against this new consultation
Following this consultation, the patient’s treating physician would receive a report. But, on the general practitioner side, the measure does not please. Last spring, during negotiations between Health Insurance and doctors’ unions, the idea that specialists could refer patients to each other was raised. The first union of general practitioners, MG France, saw this as a short-circuiting of the “pivotal role” of the attending physician.
However, with this new consultation, Avenir Spé intends to facilitate access to care. In the Manifesto of Avenir Spé: For better access to carethe union indicates that “excluding specific emergencies, you often have to wait a very long time to obtain an appointment with a specialist: more than 30 days for a dermatologist (median time in France, 40 days for a cardiologist. (…) For the most part, these Difficulties in accessing specialists can be explained by the current nomenclature known as “care pathway”. This requires going first and always beforehand to the attending physician.”.
Reducing delays could allow patients to have quicker access to a consultation and therefore, in certain cases, start treatment more quickly. The manifesto gives the following example: “a pulmonologist sees a patient who is very short of breath. Suspecting a risk of heart failure, he sends her to a cardiologist”.
