Doctor appointment no-shows to be fined €5 in France

French patients who fail to turn up to a medical appointment will be forced to pay a fine of €5.
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Gabriel Attal, the prime minister, unveiled the penalty as President Emmanuel Macron’s government is under orders to cut spending given a shock rise in public deficit and debt.
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French media has already dubbed the planned scheme “the rabbit tax” as French for a no-show is “poser un lapin”.
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Penalising patients who fail to show up could free up to 20 million appointments a year for other patients, the prime minister insisted. “We can’t allow this to continue,” said Mr Attal.
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French doctors record around 27 million missed appointments per year.

24 hours notice

Under the plans, patients would have to provide debit or credit card details when arranging an appointment. If they fail to turn up without giving at least 24 hours notice, doctors would be allowed to fine them. However, the decision would be at their discretion and they could exempt patients with a valid reason for failing to show up.
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It is “a sum that may seem high to some, insufficient to others, but in any case, health is not free”, said health minister Catherine Vautrin, on RTL radio. The aim was, she said, to “make patients more responsible”, at a time when “many French people are finding it difficult to access healthcare.”
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The plan has sparked an angry response from doctors’ unions and patients’ groups.
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“This won’t work,” Patrick Pelloux, head of the emergency doctors’ union, told RMC radio. “It’s just a tax and the health service could suffer.”