73% of French people have a positive image of telemedicine, according to an Odoxa barometer conducted for the French E-Health Agency, and published in January 2021. This is a high score for an increasingly well-known, understood and regulated practice. However, French people are among those who use it the least in Western Europe. Focus on this paradox and on this crucial change in "patient experience".
Telemedicine is not a new practice; but it tends to be increasingly appreciated by European, more particularly French and Italian people. The health crisis has much to do with this enthusiasm. Indeed, about 70% of French and Italians – compared to only 54% of Germans – are convinced that telemedicine greatly helps us out of the current situation and will help us manage potential new health crises.
Another explanation is the satisfaction rate. For example, 88% of French people who have already used teleconsultation are satisfied. This is up 9% compared to June 2020, thus ranking them among the most satisfied Europeans, just behind the Germans.
A lower increase in the use of teleconsultation than in our neighbours.
Despite this, only 20% of French people state having already used teleconsultation. And although this percentage has been up 14 points since June 2020, it remains very low with regard to our neighbours' percentages. Indeed, more than half of Spaniards and 42% of British people have already experimented teleconsultation.
But where do the reservations of French people come from? First of all, 56% of them consider that teleconsultation is less effective than an actual consultation – a significant rate but which is the lowest in Western Europe. In addition, 65% of those opposed to teleconsultation regard it as an impersonal method that "dehumanises" the patient-doctor relationship.
Two obstacles that could be lifted by the doctors themselves. Indeed, the barometer reaches the conclusion that confidence in one's doctor is the key criterion for developing teleconsultation: 70% of French people would agree to resort to it if their doctors suggested it. Not to mention that 68% of the refractory people surveyed did not know that it was fully reimbursed by the French Health Insurance system. This should help them take the plunge!