I was woken up before dawn this morning by my poor neighbour. They have only been in France for 1 week, and her husband was in trouble health wise. She hadn’t a clue, which in a stressful situation is bad enough in one’s own language let along a new country and a new language.
As I speak French I was able to call 15 and speak to the operator, SAMU called, and after a very quick response all is well.
However, a few years ago I downloaded a booklet of what to say to the emergency services when you don’t speak French. This was for another newly arrived couple where the wife was diagnosed as being very poorly.
I don’t have a problem with being woken up at all. But if we were away, it might be an issue.
So I tried to re download the booklet, which I stupidly didn’t save, but the link doesn’t work.
It was published on this site and the lady said it was SAMU 16 EN CAS D’URGENCE MEDICALE and this was the link http://www.paysruffecois.fr/sante/guide-sante.fr I know that’s the Charente, and we are not in that dept, but it is very relevant across France. Does anyone have the link at all? If you do, I can print it off and give a copy to my neighbour.
For my guests in our gite who don’t speak French I recommend calling 112 which I understand is the international number and they will speak English.
Also, I was always told call 18 which is the pompiers who are frontline help / life savers. (NB they were the ones who were at the centres for Covid vaccinations in the beginning in case of anaphylactic shock)
There is clearly some confusion here in Seine Maritime (and possibly elsewhere!).about the distinction between these two numbers…When I had my recent accident, and was lying in some pain on the ground, I could hear my (French) volunteer colleagues arguing amongst themselves. Some said they should call 18, others maintained they should call 112 “since I was un Anglais”. I couldn’t actually speak at that point to say, please just get on and call somebody…They eventually settled on calling 18…
As far as I know, 112 is a national number so it’s possible the person you talk to is in a major city not nearby. As for speaking English, not always. My neighbour tried that first this morning and the woman on the end got annoyed . She did call using a uk mob, so it wasn’t geo located. I got through to 15 in nano seconds on my french mob, and the operator was at least in the same dept, and had me on a sat map in seconds. So I guess 112 language and locating, is the luck of the draw if using a mobile thats not French. 18 I’ve never used.
As I’ve related elsewhere… 18 is the one I contact… if one needs urgent assistance… never been let-down. but I appreciate everyone will have their own preferences.
Sadly SAMU 15 has not been very helpful/efficient in my locality… might well be different elsewhere, but not here.
and just last year, even the Pompiers drew a blank with SAMU.
OH was in a very bad way… Pompiers came, sorted him… finally getting him stable.
They phoned SAMU several times to arrange for them to come and take-over…
No answer, no answer…
Finally, when they’d finished working on OH… the pompiers gave up with SAMU and took OH to hospital themselves… and thank goodness they did…
What a shame that you had such a bad experience. I’ve called 15 on behalf of people lots of times and in different parts of France and never had a bad experience. This mornings call was no exception. The operator was straight on it and SAMU arrived in 10 minutes from 20 kms away - don’t ask me how because I don’t know. Like a lot of people we are quite rural. They were followed about 20 mins later by 2 doctors and another paramedic. None of them sappers, but I know our local sappers are also brilliant, it was just the two SAMU’s. My experience of 112 is that they are not necessarily English speakers, they may be able to speak other languages as others have said it’s international apparently. I’m very lucky not to need this, but know others do struggle. So everyone, try what you think is right for you in your area, there is no right or wrong method.
Sadly, our household is not the only one to receive poor/abysmal response from SAMU.
Neighbours discovered (with near fatal results) that if one has called-out SAMU and SAMU are dithering about whether to send their team out… or not…
one cannot then call the Pompiers and expect them to step-in… 'cos they won’t.
It’s obvious from this thread… that responses to emergencies do vary in different parts of the country… and each one of us will do what we know works best for us… fair enough.
Still not sure what is counted as a medical emergency. My OH has suffered from total fatigue for nearly a week and it’s not getting any better. She manages to eat a little breakfast but falls asleep with half a cup of tea in her hand. Normally she can’t stay in her chair more than 5 minutes She’s unable to walk unaided and if left alone would stay asleep in her chair all day if not disturbed. But her BP is fine though her pulse rate is high at 100. But whatever she’s got doesn’t seem to be life threatening. She’s an appointment with her doctor tomorrow but I can’t see her making it. She obviously needs to see a doctor so should I call samu? Obviously I’ll try to speak to her doctor tomorrow
They also have an app - IOS and Android - very useful information and also alerts: - all about emergency bulletins, numbers, contact points for the authorities.
. She did call using a uk mob, so it wasn’t geo located. I got through to 15 in nano seconds on my french mob, and the operator was at least in the same dept, and had me on a sat map in seconds. So I guess 112 language and locating, is the luck of the draw if using a mobile thats not French. 18 I’ve never used.