Interest grows for virtual consultation ‘health cabins’

Suppliers of ‘health cabins’ – booths with screens, loudspeakers and basic medical equipment such as stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs – report growing interest as more patients opt for virtual GP appointments.

The cubicles offer digital contact with a doctor who talks through the procedures to record vital signs and can write a prescription to be printed out in the cabin. These are increasingly popular in more remote communes where the nearest doctor practices can be distant or over-subscribed. Similar but more minimal installations, for example in some pharmacies, may also be referred to as health ‘kiosks’.

The mayor of Le Favril in Eure-et-Loir, John Billard, described how they had installed a health cabin in 2019. The village, with a population of 350, also allows other patients in the area to use the booth. The district has just one GP surgery, and it often takes days to get an appointment.

It cost around €100,000 for installation (the room it is housed in was provided by the commune) and running costs are €1,000 a month. The mayor’s secretary, a volunteer, or a member of the conseil municipal manages appointments and helps people install themselves. The actual consultation, including taking blood pressure and pulse, is done by the patient, with a doctor (usually based in a call centre in Paris or Brittany) directing.

A survey for Agence Nationale de la Santé showed that 75% of doctors who use téléconsultations were satisfied with the results. It also noted that some doctors did not bother with specialist software, and instead use telephones or platforms such as Skype or Facetime.

National rail operator SNCF has caused controversy with the announcement that it wants some 300 boxes de téléconsultation installed in stations by 2028, with a nurse on hand and offering the chance to consult a doctor online. The places where they are to be installed are meant to be chosen along with regional health agencies.

The doctors’ professional order expressed concern about the project, saying it risks a kind of ‘deregulation’ of the health system. It added it would not solve the ‘medical desert issue’, on the contrary, areas without easy access to an equipped station would feel “even more second rate” in terms of access to care.

The SNCF, however, said it wanted to facilitate access to care in areas lacking sufficient medical services, and that these would be prioritised.

A study funded by the Normandy region in 2020-22 found that overall, internet consultations had so far been taken up more by young tech-savvy people in cities than those who are supposed to benefit, such as isolated people in rural areas. It said, however, that more availability of internet consultations with assistance – as is proposed in the stations or certain communes – could help.