Why telemedicine booths in supermarkets are not to the taste of doctors

Going to the doctor while shopping is now possible. At least in Troyes, in Aube, and Porte de Châtillon, south of Paris, in two brands of the Monoprix group. Telemedicine cabins have been installed there and allow you to be put in touch with a general practitioner in less than 15 minutes. In the cabins, developed by the company Tessan Pharma Express, several items of equipment are available to patients with a blood pressure monitor, a stethoscope or even a thermometer. No advance fee is required to use this service, for which registration is done via your social security number.

Possible diagnostic errors

For Jean-Paul Ortiz, the president of the Confederation of French Medical Unions (CSMF), these gondolas represent “a commercial drift that some would like to give to medical practice.” He denounces adeteriorated quality of care that is done outside the course of care with a doctor who is far from the patient.” A vision of medicine far from his own, he who says to himself “in favor of teleconsultation with criteria that guarantee good care, knowing that this cannot replace full face-to-face support.” He is worried about possible diagnostic errors or bad referrals of patients to specialist doctors because of poor territorial knowledge by the doctor who is on the other side of the screen but also at the other end of the France.

The National Council of the Order of Physicians also reacted strongly to these announcements, in a press release published on April 20. “It cannot be accepted that a doctor takes charge of a patient without the possibility of carrying out a clinical examination each time this is desirable, without any territorial anchoring or any knowledge of the medico-social health fabric, without worrying about his course of care and without providing a guarantee that the continuity of care can be ensuredprotests the institution. The teleconsultation booths open within supermarkets seem, in the promotion that has been made of them in the press, to contravene these obligations and to be carried out by telemedicine operators, excluding care pathways.”

Health is not a business

Monoprix, which plans to open eight other gondolas by the summer, defends itself by saying it wants to “facilitate access to careas Maguelone Paré-Harroch, concept and innovation director at Monoprix, explained to RTL. Just as we sell organic apples and clothes, it is important for us to address these new needs to take care of ourselves. The advantage here is that you have all the equipment that you are not necessarily going to have at home.”

Jean-Paul Ortiz regrets the “degraded image” that returns from the medical exercise. On the question of relieving congestion in practices thanks to these gondolas, the president of the CSMF believes that “no scientific study shows that teleconsultation reduces the use to the doctor of the territory in person.” It also calls for avoiding naivety. “Does Monoprix act solely out of social altruism?he asks ironically. It’s a way for them to attract people to their premises and make them buy in their supermarket. We are typically in a process with commercial interest.” On this point, the order of doctors strongly encourages the government to react and recalls that according to article R.4127-19 of the public health code: “health should not be practiced as a business.”

⚠ Opening of cabins #teleconsultation in supermarkets: the Order recalls that “medicine should not be practiced as a business” (article R.4127-19 of the public health code), and calls on the @governmentFR to react → https://t.co/9FyDPukRBR #Monoprix pic.twitter.com/hMvvwc5pqa

— Order of Physicians (@ordre_medecins) April 21, 2021