I’ve just enrolled (is that the term?) with Doctolib and found an appointment nearby which says they are taking on new patients. I’ve got an appointment for tomorrow.
I’m not familiar with the Doctolib website or their services but it appears my appointment is at a Pharmacie and the appointment is shown as “Consultation vidéo par un médecin généraliste via dispositif de téléconsultation”.
It also has a note that says “Cabine déjà occupée : Si la cabine est en cours d’utilisation à votre arrivée, merci de patienter le temps que la téléconsultation en cours se termine.Nous vous remercions pour votre compréhension”.
As this is to be my first appointment where hopefully I will be taken on by a doctor (medecin traitant?), does this all look OK?
If I’,m reading this appointment properly, I go to the pharmacie, go into some sort of ‘cabine’ and have a video call with a doctor. Am I correct?
Is this the type of appointment I need to get myself registered with a doctor?
No this just gets you a consultation for your current ailment, you need to find a local drs surgery and ring them up or go in person.
Those cabins are handy but you’ll be talking t a Dr quite possibly 700km away which is a fat lot of use to you if you’re looking for a GP.
Where do you live? Just give me your local village/town and I’ll look.
Video consultations are great - we had friends staying with us and she needed one for inflamed insect bites: she left us very happy that she now had some useful antibiotics - but I’d be surprised if you were to find an MT that way. The essence of a video consultation is that it can be with a doctor who is somewhere else.
Do you know where the doctor is based?
The way we got out MT was via an appointment at the surgery. We had asked many receptionists in the area if we could join an MT’s list, with zero success.
We had been introduced to a couple of retired pharmacists and he said we should go to the surgery - I needed an appointment for prescription of medicines for hypertension: the pharmacist said it should always be possible to get an appointment for a need like that - and, when we saw the doctor, ask him.
It worked.
I’ve written this elsewhere on here, but my strong impression, from doctors and dentists, is that it’s pointless asking the receptionists: you need to see the professional him/herself. Find a surgery, make an appointment and, when you see the doctor, be very appreciative of his/her care and everything else, and ask if you can quote him/her as your MT for your carte vitale.
From my experience ALWAYS make friends with the receptionist, even if initially they seem frosty. Their job is to protect the doctor/specialist/dentist. And in time they will make your life easier.
I had a blood test which showed I was profoundly anemic. It was the end of the day, I rushed round to the doctor’s surgery, the receptionist took one look at the numbers, said OMG (French equivalent) and got a doctor to see me immediately. I was having a blood transfusion two days later and that started my rapid route to the diagnosis and treatment of colon cancer. She helped make that happen.
Interesting, but how did you “quote him” to CPAM? I’m only quibbling to help Mike as the initiative is normally from the MT from his/her desk. My new one as of 6 months just tapped a button on his computer.
Of course we all know how much variation there is in administration across France so as you found other approaches can work.
So Mike needs to ask whether doctor will accept him as new patient, and then how to do it. Maybe your way, maybe my way or maybe some other variation!
Oh dear, just been reading the local press for the region and it seems a man went into a pharmacy in Narbonne for a tele consultation and whilst he was in the booth or whatever, the staff forgot about him and shut the shop up. He had to get out by breaking a window. You couldn’t make that up!
Reflecting on this I think we are both saying the same thing, just in a different order. You gave CPAM doc’s name and they would have checked that he was ok with it as it’s Doc’s decision. I gave Doc my CPAM details by handing her my carte vital so was already in place if CPAM wanted to check.
I am sure you know more about the system than I do! All I have is my experience, which was that, as part of the application process to be in CPAM and order to get a carte vitale (which we did not have at the time: the cv followed the acceptance), we had to find a doctor who would agree to our naming him to CPAM as our MT.
I hope I’m not muddying the water but, as far as I can see on the S1106 Form (I have copies in English and French) which is entitled “Demande d’Ouverture Des Droits a l’Assurance Maladie” - “Application for Membership Of The French Health Care System” on the English version, there is no question or space to put in the details of your French GP.
Does that come later?
