This is where the 87% figure comes from:
https://www.info.gouv.fr/actualite/former-plus-principe-de-solidarite-le-plan-du-gouvernement-face-aux-deserts-medicaux
I’m very surprised.
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So am I but I don’t know how they worked out the figures.
Finding an MT is challenging but not impossible. We live very rurally, and we lived here for a year before I had an MT, but I waited most of that year before I started looking (I’m in relatively good health and had plenty of other “first year” stuff to do). Before I found my doc, I suspected that I had melanoma (and I did), and it took me only 21 days from my first attempt to get an appointment online, to surgery being done, and that included me being away on a pre-planned vacation. The doctor that first saw me is now my MT, but it took her several weeks to accept me as a patient - and I was able to see her right away anyway. We’re planning on moving soon (probably to Loir-et-Cher) and anticipate having some issues finding a new MT, but we’ll just keep at it until we find one. In the meantime, I guess we’ll be driving a ways to see our current MTs.
I’m not worried about war. I’m from the US, and France feels so much safer to me. If you’re not from a country where you have to worry about being shot dead at any time for any random reason, I guess it’s different.
Also, my opinion of FB expat groups in general, and Expats Move to France in particular, is pretty low (for what that’s worth). You were smart to ask here.
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People referring to themselves as “expats” instead of immigrants is part of the problem if you ask me.
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We’ve been round the houses on that one a few times IIRC, but to me “expat” implies someone intending to return “home” eventually. Which is fine of course, but doesn’t well describe a permanent settler.
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Well we have just had a new medical centre open in this little town and three more MT’s join the ones already working independently here. You can still get seen in other nearby towns, Medipoles, Urgences and so on. Believe what you read online with a pinch of salt to be honest.
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I consider myself an immigrant, yes.
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It’s considering the country you left, not the one you live in now as “home” that separates the two.
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This gives a flavour of the way things are assessed (sous-dense being a nice euphemism for dessert)
This is much more detailed report which makes it clear that the term medical dessert doesn’t mean no services, just a provision that is less than ideal. So only being able to access 2.5 consultations each year is under their threshold and qualifies as a dessert. And it is a bit of an old report so some things have improved due to the change to the clausus numerus in 2020.
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And are now improving, see my previous post.
And with DoctoLib, you can actually make an appointment to see a Doctor, even if you have to travel 20-30 minutes.
I’m told that isn’t the case in the uk these days.
I often tell the story about my cancer diagnosis, where the PET Scan wasn’t definitive and I needed an MRI on my pelvis. I was a bit miffed as I was being denied the certainty I was expecting that day so as soon as I left the consultation, I got on Doctolib and found an MRI appointment that was available within the hour. Admittedly, this was Paris but I really couldn’t complain about that.
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You can still see a doctor in person in the UK, but in my experience they decide if they want you to come in - my lot do “telephone triage” where they chat to you first.
Which probably helps to screen out the time wasters.
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Ours tended to have a second stage of triage, where you’d see a nurse, and she’d decide whether to get the doctor in.
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Well 6 million French people are affected and that’s not 87%. I suppose in land mass terms it’s maybe correct but I wouldn’t expect to find a surgery at the top of Mont Ventoux or Mont Blanc!
Best stop reading Russian online factory misinformation!
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We have permanently left our country of origin, never to return. But we haven yet arrived at our final destination country, thus we still are and call ourselves “expats” no matter how many years since we left.
Suggest then that you look up the word ‘expatriate’ in a dictionary.
An expatriate is one who will one day, retutn to one’s native country.
It stoll doesn’t appear to be an ex-spat, though.
@ChrisMann is that you?
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