We have just received our copy of the Saone et Loire Magazine and to our horror have discovered that we are in a medical desert.
Our MT retired some time ago and has been replaced by a part time doctor who lives miles away and has taken yet another long holiday over Christmas.
When you ring the doctor’s phone line you are greeted by a message saying that please bear with them as they have a shortage of doctors.
This is not just in Cluny but in a huge surrounding area.
What is the situation in your area?
The same, our nearest little town has just built a new medical centre next to the pharmacie which will house doctors, nurses and physios but are struggling to fill any of the positions.
Vast swathes of rural france suffer the same. We go to Dijon for most specialists - nearly 300km round trip.
However have a good GP (although approaching retirement 
), a great dentist, and because we live in an outdoor sporty sort of area we have a lot of kinés. Appointment last week on a Friday afternoon was brought forward so they could go skiing.
This was 2017 but 581 cantons without a dentist!
I have given up looking for a doctor after 2 yrs, I will keep plodding along till I collapse and go to a hospital for treatment.
1 Like
@digitracker
Have you spoken with your Mairie… they have contacts/info which we are not always privy to… you might find that they can help you.
I suggest this from experience… one family were having similar troubles to you… and in desperation I spoke with a pal at the Mairie… two phone calls later and we were given the name of a Doc who would see the family “tomorrow” and hopefully take them onto an already overflowing patientlist… yep… finally got it sorted… hurrah.
1 Like
To find a GP you can also enlist the CPAM mediation services to find one or access telemedicine. Also means if you don’t manage to get on a list they will arrange for you to pay the lower price, ie €25 not €27 for a consultation
Si vous ne parvenez pas à trouver de médecin traitant, vous pouvez vous rapprocher du médiateur de votre caisse primaire d’assurance maladie. Il vous apportera des conseils personnalisés, adaptés aux possibilités locales (1). Un questionnaire vous aidera à lui présenter votre cas. En suivant ses conseils, vous éviterez d’être mal remboursé avant de retrouver un médecin traitant.
(1) Parmi les ressources locales, des organisations coordonnées territoriales peuvent répondre à vos besoins de soins, notamment par le recours à la téléconsultation.
1 Like
We must be really lucky here. We have a doctor 1km away, although he’s pretty useless and approaching retirement age. We have a surgery with two doctors 5km away which we are registered with, and they’re fantastic. We have a dentist in Carcassonne who’s also great. We had no issues registering with them. It must be frustrating to have to travel long distances for what is basic care.
I have been to the Mairie when I came here to live and they kindly gave me a list of doctors but sadly everywhere is full or closed,even some of the local people in the village are without GPs, as surgeries are closing everywhere in the area. I am not to concerned as I am in good health and I did get all my covid jabs at the pharmacie,
1 Like
A good pharmacy can be worth its weight in gold… with helpful staff and (in my experience) at least one highly-qualified/suitably-qualified person who can give advice on medical situations…
2 Likes
I find the pharmacies helpful and caring here, and wouldn’t hesitate to ask about treatment for a minor illness as I think they would give me good advice.
2 Likes
We are very lucky here as we acquired a new GP just before the old one retired and even have a second (part time one now). I’ve no idea how hard it is to get on their lists though. Dentist has just retired and all the others in the area seem to be refusing new patients unless they are really local. We’re with one half and hour away but even they will no longer take patients from that sort of distance.
The mayor is planning a new health centre in the village to have 3 doctors and a couple of dentists but who knows how long that will take…
It seems that the Carcassonne area is where to be. Very fertile! I have my own real life Dr Finlay, a dental practice with three partners, a world class implant clinic, more pharmacies than one can shake a stick at and two hospitals that are eagerly waiting for business!
1 Like
Despite my depression on several fronts I have to admit that I can’t really complain. The nearer cabinet that we transferred to last year has 4 doctors and an extension being built at this moment. After drawing a blank on any dentists a year ago I have a rdv later this month at one I had previously visited but who had disappeared 
. 15 kms away. The cabinet is 4 kms from here.
Our new doctor turns out to be English speaking and insists on home visits for Fran and includes me in the same visit. This morning he even waived away the €25 I had ready for him. Did someone say that had gone up now?
Only because I saw it from parking nearby did I realise that there was a ‘medical centre’ in Torigni.s.Vire. It was not in the Doctolib d/base. My landlord & landlady had no idea it existed.
I saw a doc there and he took me on as my M.T.
It’s now 30 mins away but I’ll stick with it. When the M.T. ran off a cardio chart and told me to book a RdV with a cardiologue I was surprised to find [back before Xmas] that the cardio in Vire is not taking RdVs until June ! I’m seeing one in Flers, 40 mins away.
Dentists seem rare beasts round here. If I had a problem which was causing major pain I’d have to get out there and find one chop-chop but if the problem was as my last - implant crown split and fell out, no pain - I could get to the dentist in Valencia and back to FR in one day, or 36 hrs with an o/n stay - or longer because I love the place.
Most of the GPs around here don’t use Doctolib - it’s a limited database of professions liberale so no (public) hospital consultants etc either… It was one of the unexpected bonuses of being admitted into hospital via A&E last month that I now have RDVs with a whole load of specialists I’d never managed to find before!
Also, thinking about it - no rush @captainendeavour but you might want to find a more local GP in case you need visiting at home. I had a discussion with mine last week when she said she could visit me if needed since I was local!
@AngelaR - home visits a pertinant point.
After a spell of lugging many cases of wine into a room with a low doorway I had to duck under, next day I could not move. Absolutamente no. I was surprised to find a doc at the local clinic at Williton, Som, was prepared to come to see me. And come a couple of times again. I thought home visits by UK docs never happened any more.
As you know from the geography of my place, I wouldn’t need to be so very incapacitated to make someone coming to me the only option for treatment.
Crickey O’Riley! I can imagine not being allowed to drive one but even to travel … 
In the icy spell last week Ollie, the English plumber, came up the steps OK [the narrow ones - the Precipice from door #16] but the inspection cover at the top is set low in its slab and it had formed a pool of invisible ice. DOwn he went, arse over elbow… Going the other way and slipping down The Precipice would be curtains.
I’d better get rear end into gear …
Thank you for the advice. Get well soon.
Definitely worth a thought @captainendeavour… After my op I’m not allowed to travel in a car for some time so if I did need to see the doc, she’d have to come to me, which is how the subject arose in my last RDV
My GP retired last year. I’ve been turned down by 3 different cabinets médicaux so far (each with more than one GP), all telling me that they can’t take on any new patients. I’m now trying to get registered at practices more than 20 km from home.
1 Like
This is exactly what I had to do on Wednesday. Ended up in ER. ER doc says to me: “Get yourself tested again for kidney function in 4 days, and then go and see your GP with the results for follow up.” Told him that I had tried to find a new one since my old one retired 8 months ago with no luck, so a visit was unlikely to happen. He admitted that it was “complicated” in our area. Radiologist at ER said the same.
There is some kind of online service that will tell you which practices have space, but the one’s I contacted all told me that they didn’t.
I have basically given up looking, apparently I can can go to Caen 100kms away to register (via doctolib), I might as well get the ferry to Portsmouth and go to ER there.
1 Like