As topic, my wife has been invited to have a mammographie de dépistage but we can’t find availability anywhere around 86. Other than jump on the train to Paris, are there any tips for finding one?
Around here, there is a mobile unit that goes around the villages 2 or 3 times a year and I think you can just turn up and wait as well as book. Not sure if you’re in a rural location or not, but if so do you have this there ?
When making them fir my wife, I’ve always found it easier and quicker to just go into radio at your nearest hospital to make an appointment directly.
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We’re fairly rural but I haven’t heard of this, I’ll look into it.
A pity the invitation didn’t come a couple of months sooner when I was at the hospital every bloody day for weeks 
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For where we are there seem to be a few rdv in the Aude on Doctolib, don’t know if you would get lucky with that for 86.
Absolutely zip so far. One in Châtellerault but apparently, at 90 minutes drive, that’s too far away. Seems like a nice day out to me and it’s available next week so I assume it’s a cancellation.
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When I struggled to get an urgent RDV with a cardiologist, I asked AI and it found one that our local medical center was unaware of.
Madame went here:
It’s about 5 minutes from our house.
They seem to be closed irregularly - so might not answer the phone when you’d expect - but I can easily pop out and photograph the (usually typed) signs in the window if that helps.
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Thanks, was it a call for an appointment?
She just went in to make the rdv because she finds that easier than phoning.
In the UK appointments are sent automatically once every three years. Patients do not then have to phone around the local (and regional, and buy the look of it supra-regional centres) to find a slot for a scan.
Please tell me how the French system is better?
I just googled ‘scanner prive vienne 86’ and it came up with Radiographie Scanner IRM Poitiers.
They offer mammographie and you can make an appointment on their website.
ps this is how I’ve booked scans in Haute Vienne so I just tried changing the department
I’m not sure if Poitiers is close enough for you but there might be other similar in 86
@billybutcher each country will have its own system.. it’s not a competition 
In France, as I understand it, if one is affiliated to the State Health/ CPAM, one has certain entitlements .. such as mammography… possibly depending on age or some other criteria.
When one first comes into the “entitled” group, one will receive an invitation to have.. blah blah blah… then if one wishes to proceed, one makes an appt with the appropriate centre where such a procedure is available.
No point in the CPAM making the appointment for me.. I might not want to have the checkup/procedure… I might not be available on the date… who knows.
by allowing the person to make their own appointment according to their own wishes/situation.. things flow much more easily with fewer wasted “no show” bookings etc.
I simply went to the nearest X-Ray place (in a nearby town) and asked them where I should go for a mammothingy .. face to face was easiest for me.
Then.. having made an appt.. I went armed with my invitation and my carte vitale, mutuelle and my passport… just in case…
No probs … had the mammo, there was no charge and I left carrying the results in a neat folder for me to read/check at home.
It should be noted that if there is a reason why a mammo “must be done NOW” one’s Doctor can sidestep the appointments system… (as with so many other procedures/checks) 
Sending our a mammo invitation is similar to sending out a “go get your covid jab”… 
some folk will take up the offer and some won’t…
Per person there are more machines available is a big plus. Equally instead of getting a RDV sent out of the blue that clashes with other appointments and you have to waste time getting it changed, you get to choose from the start.
The other thing I have appreciated here is that they pay a lot more attention to people with dense breast tissue, and send mammograms off to a central 2nd viewing service. Perhaps this happens now in the UK but I was never offered it there and am always offered it here. Dense breast tissue is much more difficult to read apparently. And I always get an echo as well as radio.
@JohnH How are you looking? I popped into nearest radiology centre that does mammograms (not all do) and booked direct. Got rdv within a week. Invitations are national tho’ so you can go anywhere - as mine was for previous address.
Yes, we’d tried that. This leads to a number of websites that are basically the same organisation, with no availability.
@JohnH Are you looking for an IRM or a Mammographie? I’ve had both on very different machines and in completely different health centres.
If they have absolutely no on-line availability (not even for a years time) , it could be due to overload/canicule/whatever … or they prefer appointments to be made personally at the appropriate centre…
It’s the routine mammogram
ah, that’s OK… you can take your time to locate your nearest place which does Mammograms.
A good subject for your wife to discuss with neighbours/friends as someone will know and/or be able to advise on where to go and how to arrange an appointment.
Actually, if you feel liberated enough you can also ask around on your wife’s behalf.
But, there is no rush…
Well the attendance rate for NHS screening appointments is just under 72% or so (the target is 80%). whereas only 44% or so of French women attend theirs so I’m not convinced the French way of doing things is better in this regard. In fact it seems considerably worse.
Double reporting of mammograms is the norm in the UK.
No, but I often hear here how awful the NHS is and how much better the French system is, but nearly every time something concrete comes up for discussion the French system somehow seems more complex, not necessarily better, and certainly puts much more onus on patients to sort things out for themselves. I realise that the point of the thread was not NHS bashing but the contrast stood out starkly for me.
That’s a cultural thing obviously but not everyone is actually equipped to do the legwork for their own healthcare.
This seems to be a case in point - provide appointments and 72% turn up, leave it to the patient and then make it harder with poor availability and only 44% do.