Stella came up with the excellent suggestion of starting a thread on people’s experiences of in-patient emergency treatment in French hospitals. Hopefully this might be of some help others who may unexpectedly find themselves/their family in similar scenarios.
As a starter, (being a recently discharged inmate in Dieppe’s High Dependency Unit following a serious fall whilst out volunteering), I offer the following random thoughts…
You will no doubt be admitted even if you have no paperwork/ID/insurance documents on you. Anecdotally, waiting at emergency admissions, almost nobody had anything on them - since emergencies are (almost by definition) totally unplanned (!)…but sooner or later they’ll want ID (ID card, passport, or Carte de Séjour in my case), and either evidence of private insurance (in my case) or a Carte Vitale/mutuelle. They were v happy with sight of the CdS copies on my phone.
Emergency care is very good but very, very expensive. Here it’s about 1500-2600€ a day in the Intensive Care/High Dependency Unit (Réanimation/Surveillance Continue).
As a condition of the CdS I (obviously) have medical cover (private, though with a high excess in my case, primarily for hospital cover). As I was volunteering when injured, AXA said I would be covered for emergency care above the excess. (If I was being paid, then that would have been a separate claim via an employer). Insurers may send consent forms to enable them to speak to the hospital about your case etc. The Association with whom I was volunteering - unbelievably- does not have separate insurance for injuries to volunteers (you must claim under your own household -garantie accidents de la vie - insurance I was told)… I’d assume other associations must have to have some form of cover for volunteers, but clearly based on what I’ve found it should not be assumed. We will be several thousand euros out of pocket. The principle of having to insure myself when working as a volunteer for an association seems incredible to my mind.
Having a phone/tablet etc (plus a charger, extension lead from awkwardly located plugs etc) is essential for dealing 1. with multiple hospital information requests (and 2. from worried friends, acquaintances, and family who may not necessarily be allowed in to see you in Réanimation/Intensive Care etc - other than by strict, limited appointment).
Multiple medical staff (who you may not see again, and who you’ve no real idea what their role is) will come and briefly look at you. It seems there is an awful lot that goes on behind the scenes to determine and coordinate your emergency treatment. I’m sure it varies from place to place, but volunteering info, and coordination between departments/units seems to be rather patchy at best. You may not be told (let alone consulted) much beyond the bare details, and HAVE to ask to get the detail. Answering your specific questions rarely seems to be a problem.
Food choice may be something of an issue if you’re vegetarian/kosher/halal etc particularly in more rural and non city areas (Dieppe!?).
It would be incredibly hard to deal with all the tasks/actions needed for the hospital/insurers etc from within Intensive care without somebody at home to help, whether a spouse/partner or close friend. They offered to put me in touch with an Assistante Sociale if needed, (though I have no experience of what that actually involves…)
Language. Virtually zero English is spoken in this particular hospital. Not an issue usually for me, but understanding medical terms, emergency procedures, explanations, names of body organs etc in French is entirely new territory for me, and I suspect others, given the unplanned nature of emergencies. Again your phone or tablet is your friend if you need to work out what a {‘contusion’} is, or what part of the body is a {côte}.
Please add in any thoughts and experiences that you think might help others…
