Naturopaths, magnetizers … Doctolib will ban 5,700 practitioners from the platform

Fans of naturopaths, addicted to magnetizers or even sophrologists, it’s over, you will not find these specialists on Doctolib anymore. The chief executive officer of the leader in online medical appointment scheduling, Stanislas Niox-Chateau, announced this in an interview published Oct. 26 in The world, that unregulated professions would be abolished. 5,700 practitioners are affected by this delisting. The goal, according to Stanislas Niox-Chateau: “to refocus on regulated professions”.

Naturopaths, magnetizers … Controversial professionals

This reversal follows a controversy that arose on social media last August, questioning the real medical competence of naturopaths. In question, the publication by the collective L’Extracteur of a video interview in which Irène Grosjean, controversial naturopath, advises to treat sick children by “rubbing” their sex. The next day, the medical order sent a statement to Doctolib, asking “to strengthen its ethical rules for registering on its platform”, regretting that it refers to professions “that are not part of the medical order. Needless to say twice, Doctolib had immediately announced the launch of a wide consultation involving about forty actors: health authorities, health orders, representatives of professionals, patient associations … with the conclusions we know: from now on then, “only professionals in possession of an ADELI or RPS number, referenced by the health authorities, will be able to use the Doctolib services.” For the others, they have 6 months to organize themselves before disappearing from the platform.

Doctolib’s “responsibility” for information provided to patients

As players in the world of health, we have a responsibility. We are now refocusing on the core of our missions, and this is healthy.

Stanislas Niox-Chateau

If Doctolib, through the voice of its CEO, does not question the legality or the beneficial effects of these “wellness activities”, it nevertheless underlines “the responsibility for the information provided to patients” by the platform-form. A responsibility with costly economic consequences, if we are to believe the CEO. Like the others, practitioners who will disappear from Doctolib paid 100 euros a month to appear there. Multiplied by 5,700, that’s a nice penny for the platform which, as its boss mentions, isn’t profitable yet.

Cover image: Unsplash / National Cancer Institute