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To raise awareness among the general public about the growing number of “absurd” or “useless” medical certificates, a vast campaign called “Purple September” has been launched. The aim is to give doctors back medical time.
While some patients find it difficult to enter the office, others, on the other hand, take excessive advantage of the doctor’s time and resources, even going so far as to request “absurd” prescriptions. Faced with this scourge, the College of General Medicine has decided to launch “September purple“, a campaign aimed at raising public awareness of these abuses.
“Unjustified”, “illegal” or simply “absurd” medical certificates
To drink water, sing at the opera or register at a nursery… Some French people are abusing medical certificates, to the great displeasure of doctors.We can say that it is easy money, but it is a waste of meaning and time for our profession.“, deplores Paul Frappé, president of the College of General Medicine, to the media 20 minutes.
To stop these medical certificates “unjustified”, “illegal” or simply “absurd” – or at least to try to reduce their number – a vast campaign was launched this Tuesday by the College of General Medicine. An initiative, congratulated by a good number of doctors concerned.
“There is at least one “absurd” or “useless” certificate per day, or even several. Which takes up a significant amount of time in a profession that is already under pressure.“, confirms Dr. Paul Frappé.
An average, which would be higher according to the words of the vice-president, Cyril Bègue.This can easily amount to three useless certificates per day… Between 15 minutes and an hour of consultation, that’s starting to be a lot“. Not to mention that some requests are beyond comprehension…
“A certificate to prove that the person had the right to drink water. His employer, in a large restaurant chain, forbade him from taking a water break”reveals Dr. Raphaël Dachicourt. And “a certificate of aptitude for a child to sing in a school choir. The school was putting on an opera, and I had to read the whole play to certify that the child was not in danger in any of the productions“, indicates his colleague, the president of the College of General Medicine.
The non-exhaustive list of these absurd certificates can be found here on the campaign website.
Medical certificate: in which cases and for whom is it mandatory?
According to the website of Health insurancemany medical appointments are motivated by the desire to obtain a medical certificate, for example to justify one’s absence to an employer, to enroll one’s child in a nursery or to allow participation in a sporting activity.
However, a large proportion of these medical certificates are not useful, meaning that no law or regulation requires them, Améli points out.
“The medical certificate is only necessary in certain specific situations defined by a law or regulatory text.“, recalls the organization.
In the world of sport, for example, the only disciplines for which an annual medical certificate is required are the so-called “with special constraints“, such as diving, boxing (or any other combat sport), activities practiced with a firearm or compressed air weapon (shooting, biathlon); sports with a land motor vehicle and mononautical disciplines (motor boat, hovercraft, etc.).
At school, no certificate is required for group outings or trips. Same thing at the start of the school year: only the certificate of up-to-date mandatory vaccinations is required.
Objective: to give doctors back medical time
To give doctors back their time, the group behind this campaign is asking for:
- Opening the possibility of a short absence from work without medical justification within the limit of a few days per year, as is already the case elsewhere in Europe – a proposed text has been proposed in the report on the administrative simplification of ReAGJIR ;
- Transform the sick child leave certificate into a sworn statementby removing the four words “certified by medical certificate” from article L1225-61 of the Labor Code;
- Delegate medical transport prescriptions : this purely administrative task is the subject of regular criticism towards doctors, whereas it could be entirely delegated to administrative staff;
- Extend to non-affiliated associations and clubs the sports registration rules proposed by the various federationsto remove sports medical certificates for all minors (except for sports with special constraints), and to encourage the use of self-completed health questionnaires rather than annual medical certificates;
- Allow the delegation of the renewal of nursing care, medical equipment (wheelchair rental, medical bed, etc.);
- Ban illegal claims by insurers such as certificates of incapacity for work, disability, death or travel cancellation, requiring comprehensive details of medical history;
- Remove the certificate of absence of contraindication to reception in the community – without logical basis because at the same time it does not exist for direct entry into kindergarten – by repealing the recent decree n°2021-1131 of August 30, 2021;
- Establish a regulatory list of required certificates which could, for example, then allow the launch of a national information campaign on the theme of “no proof, no certificate”.