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Organization of care

Expanded access for care provided by a nurse or physical therapist

Publié le 11 juillet 2024 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

Two decrees issued in Official Journal on 28 june 2024, care provided by a nurse or a physiotherapist can be more easily accessed under certain conditions: a patient with a long-term condition requiring nursing care can now declare a nurse referral; and a 5-year experiment allowing some physiotherapists to be consulted without a medical prescription will soon be conducted in a few departments.

If you are over 16 years of age and have a long-term illness that requires nursing care, you can now report a referring nurse to your social security organization, in agreement with the latter. This health care practitioner is responsible for

Coordinate and supervise your care;
Enlighten you about complex care processes
Keep track of your medical records (ensure that these documents comply with applicable regulations)
accompany you in the administrative tasks related to the organization of your care (schedules, logistical aspects...).

The referring nurse works, depending on your situation, with:

This collaboration should ensure continuity of care as well as personalized care tailored to your specific needs.

You can look for a nurse on the directory of the National Health Insurance Fund.

In what new setting can you consult a masseur-physiotherapist without prescription?

An experiment, which will begin on August 28, 2024 and will last 5 years, will allow you to consult without medical prescription a masseur-physiotherapist practicing in a territorial health professional community.

A ministerial decree will shortly specify the departments participating in this experiment. For each of these territories, the list of physiotherapists you can consult will be published on the website of the relevant regional health agency.

In this experiment, the number of sessions will be limited to 8 if you do not have a medical diagnosis ; otherwise (for example, if you had to go to the emergency room and a doctor made a diagnosis), there will be no limit to the number of sessions.

If the physiotherapist you are visiting feels that a diagnosis or medical opinion is necessary in your situation, he or she may inform you of the need to go to your treating doctor (or another doctor, if not available) beforehand.

The masseur-physiotherapist will indicate, in your shared medical record, an initial assessment and a report of the care provided; in addition, he will send you and your treating doctor these 2 documents.