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HEALTH

Are there really 270,000 unclaimed appointments for Covid vaccinations in France?

The French media has flagged up thousands of spare appointments, but among those in eligible groups the biggest complaint is not being able to find an appointment slot.

Published: 28 April 2021 17:10 CEST
Are there really 270,000 unclaimed appointments for Covid vaccinations in France?
Vaccine centres in France give thousands of doses a day. Photo: Nicolas Tucat/AFP

Headlines about 270,000 unfilled vaccine appointments in France have prompted two questions from the many millions of people still waiting to be vaccinated – where are these slots and how can I find one?

“It is true that we have a number of appointments that are not being kept. According to the information I have, we should not exaggerate [their number],” prime minister Jean Castex said at on Wednesday.

“There are a certain number of large centres, especially the large metropolitan vaccination centres, which have vaccination slots that remain open,” health minister Olivier Véran also acknowledged on Tuesday.

How many free slots?

The 270,000 figure comes from the website Vite ma Dose ! (Quickly, my dose!) which was set up to help people struggling to find an appointment near them. It is essentially a search site that links to the various different platforms offering appointments and finds the nearest appointment slot based on the user’s postcode.

The site was set up in response to so many people who were eligible for a vaccine but reported finding it hard to book an appointment as there were no free slots near them.

READ ALSO How to sign up for spare vaccine doses in France

Its founder is Guillaume Rozier, the French data scientist behind the Covid Tracker site and he points out that there are some qualifications to the eye-catching 270,000 figure.

First these are available slots for the next 50 days (so until mid June) at centres around the country. There are now several thousand vaccine centres as well as 22,000 pharmacies offering jabs and some GPs, so that could amount to just one free appointment per centre.

Second the number of slots does not necessarily correspond with the number of doses available with, according to Rozier, GPs and pharmacies opening up many slots to be sure of finding patients and then closing them when the doses they have available are taken.

However even with these caveats, he adds that the free slots on the site have increased in recent days, from around 30,000 – 40,000 a fortnight to more like 150,000 to 250,000.

On average, France is now giving around 300,000 vaccines per day.

Deliveries

The increase in free slots corresponds with an increase in deliveries of vaccines to France, including the first part of the extra 7.5 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine supplied to the EU and the first deliveries of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

At the start of the French vaccine programme there was a marked trend of the country having many more doses than it was injecting, which was largely blamed on overly-complicated supply chains.

Since then, vaccine use has caught up with vaccine deliveries, but this may lag again if extra deliveries do not correspond to extra injections given.

The below chart shows deliveries in grey, with doses given in blue (light blue for first doses and dark blue for second doses).

There have also been problems on a local level such as the vaccine centre in Nice which closed early on a Saturday when no-one turned up, local officials say there had been issues in publicising the centre’s opening hours.

There are also reports of hesitancy around the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is now only given to over 55s in France.

Some vaccine centres say they struggle to persuade people to take the AstraZeneca doses but overall the use of AstraZeneca in France is around 75 percent of available doses – lower than Pfizer on 90 percent but comparable to Moderna.

IN NUMBERS How many leftover doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine are there in France?

The health ministry says that some of the ‘spare’ slots are made available at the last minute by centres which have received more doses than anticipated – they can appear to be unclaimed but in fact have only been available for a matter or hours or even minutes.

Eligibility

But reports of vacant slots have lead to calls for the government to allow the vaccine to be opened up to all.

“It’s becoming absurd to refuse vaccinations when there are vaccines available,” Jean-Paul Stahl, professor of infectious and tropical diseases at Grenoble University Hospital, told France Info.

“We had a first stage where the number of doses was limited, and where it was therefore logical to restrict vaccination to the populations most at risk. But now, we’re in the middle of a cumbersome administrative process that continues.

“We persist in sticking to these categories when some people in these categories do not want to be vaccinated, and there are others outside these categories who wish to be vaccinated.”

France has based the phases of its rollout on the risk of developing the most severe forms of Covid – so the highly vulnerable residents of Ehpad nursing homes were the first to become eligible, along with the staff who looked after them, followed gradually by other age groups, people with serious medical conditions and people at high risk of exposure to the virus such as health workers.

READ ALSO When will I be eligible for the Covid vaccine in France?

Of the groups who were eligible in the first stages of the rollout, according to health ministry figures

  • 100 percent of Ehpad residents have now had at least one dose
  • 70 percent of over 75s
  • 70 percent of health workers

For the entire population, 20 percent of people have received at least one dose, rising to 27 percent for the adult population.

And for the moment it seems like the government is sticking with a phased rollout, with health minister Olivier Véran’s call to people take up vaccine slots restricted to those in eligible groups.

There may, however, be an acceleration of the opening up to the next group, which is under 55s with no medical conditions, while Véran has also called on vaccine centres that have unused slots to call in people in younger age groups are subscribe to a platform such as Covid Liste which can send out alerts to people on spare appointments in their area.

Member comments

  1. I would have the AZ vaccine in a heartbeat. Impossible where I live (la Sarthe). Tried through various channels like Doctolib which asked me to confirm with the code which they sent me, only they didn’t.
    My expectations for French tech were already low so this didn’t surprise me that much.

  2. An anecdote.
    I secured confirmed vaccination at Chateau Gontier, about 1hr.45min drive from home. On arrival we were refused vaccination by the local fonctionnaires who said that they were only vaccinating people on local Dr’s lists only. Our printed Doctolib confirmed reservations were rudely ignored and we had to leave. It was a typically sour and nasty ‘fonctionnaire’ experience, dealing with a rude and aggressive people who won’t even listen to what you have to say. One week later via Doctolib I secured confirmed jabs at Poitiers about 1hr 30min drive. I asked the completely charming, polite and helpful staff who were working there and they said they were all volunteers. Incredibly, all spoke excellent English and were delighted to see us. In the huge arena (Poitiers Expo) there were twelve tents for vaccinating people. Only five were in use and the facility was at the most 40 % full. with more than ample parking and other facilities. I could not help but notice that amongst those being vaccinated there was not one single person of colour or of Arab features. Nonetheless we got our Pfizer jab and it all went amazingly smoothly. But there is no point in getting the vaccine if there are huge numbers who don’t get the jab.

  3. My wife and I had to book in different sites mine easily booked with DocoLib Civray Vaccination centre 20 minutes from home, however a couple of weeks later when my wife became eligible I ended up having to use the website “Vite ma Dose” and found doses available in Centre Clinical de Soyaux, Elsan (Angouléme) 1hr 10mins from home. both web sites on line easily used to reserve appointments when they have them ( make it quicker to reserve appointment register first with Doctolib, gets rid of annoying delays in unknown bits needed to reserve an appointment) and they remind you of your forthcoming appointment. – these vaccination centres get fully booked very quickly so speed is needed most times. – Found the volunteers and staff at both centres helpful, Kind and broken English spoken altogether a good feeling. – I have since just had my second dose with the same experience, my wife has to wait for her next in June, and now waits without fear of a bad experience

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HEALTH

The different ways you can make a doctor’s appointment in France

Booking a medical appointment in France can be time-consuming – especially if you are new to the country and are looking for an English-speaking doctor.

Published: 13 May 2024 16:52 CEST
The different ways you can make a doctor's appointment in France

You do not need a carte vitale to book a doctor’s appointment in France – anyone who needs medical help while in the country is entitled to it, but you may not be entitled to any reimbursement if you are not part of the social security system.

Booking a GP’s appointment can be as simple as phoning up your friendly neighbourhood GP, or using an online service such as Doctolib. 

It helps a lot, if you have a médecin traitant – an attending GP, who adds you (and your family, if they can) to their list of patients. 

READ ALSO Explained: How to register with a doctor in France

It is not always easy to find one. Some parts of the country are short of GPs, which means doctors’ lists can fill up very quickly. But it is important that anyone who lives in France is registered with a named GP, especially if they have a carte vitale.

As well as being the main point of contact between patients and the medical profession in all its guises, it is financially responsible to be registered with a GP in France.

Reimbursement on consultations is typically 70 percent through the French healthcare system, but just 30 percent for anyone without a declared doctor. Meanwhile, top-up mutuelle health insurance companies usually require you to declare a médecin traitant and if you don’t, you may not be able to receive reimbursements on certain treatments.

Bear in mind, it is your responsibility to register with a local médecin traitant. But, even after you have done so, you can still make an appointment with any doctor, anywhere in France, and arrange specialist treatment, if you need it. 

READ ALSO 5 things to know about visiting a doctor in France

How do you go about making a GP appointment in France?

There are several options.

Some health centres – more often in larger towns and cities – operate a walk-in policy. But expect waits to be lengthy. Do not, however, assume that your GP operates a system like this.

You can phone for an appointment. This is another very common method. Your GP will have their own system for making appointments – which may even include something that looks, to the uninitiated, very much like a casual walk-in policy. 

Some may have an assistant to deal with booking appointments and other administration. Others may deal with appointments themselves, and may – for example – operate some sort of triage system based on voice messages from patients. 

What about online booking systems?

And many practitioners are now attached to websites, such as Doctolib. As of 2023, about half of all GP appointments in France were made using Doctolib.

READ ALSO How to use: French medical website Doctolib

Be aware that other online booking systems are available. Doctolib is one of the best known, but your GP may be attached to another system, like the health ministry approved site ‘LeMedecin.Fr’.

This website also has a feature where you can take an immediate online consultation with whatever doctor is available at that moment. By clicking ‘Consultez en vidéo maintenant’ you will be connected to the next doctor who is free. This option may involve an additional charge between €5-10 on top of the price of the consultation, and you will be expected to pay when booking.

If you have any trouble with either of these websites, you can go through the list of registered generalists per département on the ‘Ameli’ website. If you use this option, you will need to call the doctor to see if they are open or available for appointments.

In terms of wait times, online systems have helped to significantly reduce the delay between booking and getting an appointment.

According to a 2023 study by Doctolib, about half of all GP appointments were available within three days from the time of booking on their platform.

Similarly, you can use online platforms to check the medical professional’s qualifications and languages spoken, as well as filter based on the doctor’s English abilities. However, this should be taken with a grain of salt because not every medical professional with English listed on their Doctolib page speaks fluent English. 

An increasing number of doctorsoffer video consultations, known as télémédecine in France. This allows professionals – particularly those in more rural areas – to diagnose less serious conditions remotely. This type of consultation is usually only available from those medical practices that are attached to online booking systems. 

Some pharmacies have also begun offering walk-in télémedicine consults, using ‘Medadom’ machines. More information here.

What about specialists?

In France, you book your own consultations with specialists, even if you are referred by a doctor (your GP may offer a recommendation, but won’t always). The good news is that many specialists do use online booking services. Those that do not usually have assistants to take care of the appointments.

READ ALSO: Urgent care: How to get non-emergency medical treatment in France

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