I had a video consultation with my MT today. It seems he’s moved to a larger practice about half an hour away and I understand that he needed to, he’s quite young and wants to progress in his career.
My dilemma now is whether I stay with him because he’s a good doctor or try to find another MT in the practice that my man has left, if they’ll have me. I should know the answer to this, but what happens if I need to see a doctor urgently or as an emergency if I stay with him?
Having been ill recently and feeling truly awful with nausea etc and barely able to drag myself 10 minutes’ walk down the street I would say definitely try to stay local.
Surely if an emergency you dial 18 (pompiers).
Otherwise, ask each practice what is the typical wait time for an appointment.
If you have an excellent rapport with your current doctor and have a history of conditions that need monitoring and you can stick with him at the new practice I’d be tempted to move.
Otherwise, if your health issues are infrequent / ad hoc, then a doctor at your current practice would probably be fine.
Thank you for the replies. I know I must sound thick, I just haven’t been in this situation.
My health isn’t complicated at the moment but you never know. What could be more difficult is that I’ve just had a look on Doctolib and I can’t see a généraliste locally who’s accepting new patients. I may need to go and talk to the local surgery and see if they’re expecting another doctor to replace my one.
They are likely to be a pain about it, I am in the same situation as you and now my dr is half an hour away, the others in the practice he left under 10 minutes away won’t take new patients, it’s exceedingly annoying.
It’s tough, isn’t it, Vero? I hope you find a solution.
You too @Jennifer11 !
Apparently Ameli can help to find an MT, but I don’t know if they would tell my current doctor.
I also saw a suggestion online of asking the pharmacy if they know of local doctors who are taking patients.
As OH said just now, at least my man told me. He had an MT that he saw once, to sign up, and never needed to consult. We noticed some years later that the surgery was empty and the lease was on offer, so the doctor had just gone.
The Ameli help seems ro be to put you in touch with another organisation.
The best approach may be to contact all the doctors locally and ask directly. Don’t just look at Doctolib, but also Kelso and Maiia
Thank you Jane.
I looked at Maiia and didn’t find anything helpful. Doctolib just says all the doctors on their list aren’t taking new patients. I hadn’t heard of Kelso though, I’ll check that.
I’m due to go to the pharmacy this week, I’ll also try asking there.
@Jennifer11 Knowing how difficult it is to find a new MT, I would follow your current MT.
Since our first MT retired, we are on our 4th one!! Luckily, they have all been within half an hour of travel.
In our local practice there are four doctors and we are registered with the worst. His waiting room is always empty. We simply go to the other doctors in the hope that we can register with one of them one day. They don’t seem to mind this situation
Doesn’t seem to matter at ours who we are registered with, we can just book with the first available
I’d stick with the existing one if I got on with him and be grateful not to be dumped. At least it doesn’t sound as though he will retire before you
You can always build your knowledge of which other doctors are liked locally as a contingency and take your time.
We stuck with the MT when we moved out of the Luberon and now have an hour’s drive to see him every 3 months. Totally worth staying with a good doctor who knows you holistically.
Couldn’t agree more and here in France our experience is that (some) doctors are prepared to play that role. We spent half an hour this morning with our MT - OH has a number of health issues (gradually being resolved) and in that time covered his second cataract op, annual consult with urologist, annual consult with vein doctor, need for check up with cardiologist, early treatment of hyperthyroidism and whether this maybe causing some memory loss.
All of this discussed with care and consideration and no sense of being rushed. He is the one who holds all of this together. If he were to move we’d follow him. My fear is he’s more likely to be heading for retirement.
If you need an emergency appointment in Cluny, you will be very lucky to see your own MT.
You will get the available appointment.
Yes, by definition in emergency, not even necessarily from your own cabinet, but I wasn’t talking about an emergency, as far as I know, others might disagree. 
Thank you everyone for your thoughts. I’ve decided to leave things as they are for now and see what I can find out locally.
It does sound on balance as if I’m better staying with my MT and video consultations. I only talk to him a couple of times a year to renew my inhaler prescriptions.
