I did get the memo…and in an emergency the NHS is great. The other positive aspect is that the doctor-patient relationship (once you get to see a doctor…) is much more modern. Many of the consultants I have encountered here come from the “doctor is god” school, so have required quite a bit of standing my ground to get answers.
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I agree with that, Jane. In fact, dealing with a very different type of healthcare system has been a steep learning curve for me. There are pros and cons to each approach but the fact that our healthcare is primarily our responsibility takes a great deal of getting used to. When I was first here it was quite a shock to be given a prescription for blood tests rather than told to make an appointment with the nurse (I very much prefer the French system for that, by the way) but the first really big hurdle was being handed a referral letter in an envelope addressed “gastroenterologue”. I hadn’t the first clue what to do! I’m used to the idea now of course but I certainly panicked to start with.
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I’ll try again…having managed to put the answer to a totally different post on my earlier post.
There is a lack of flexibility here that sometimes frustrates me. I’ve been a rugby referee in England for the best part of 20 years, and when I moved here hoped to carry on. My French is good enough, and I have always kept fit enough for the level of amateur rugby I wanted to be involved in.
But the FFR have an arbitrary cut off age of 55, I was 57 on arrival. I’ve seen referees both here and in England who may well be younger than me but are in no way as fit, or as experienced. It’s a waste of my abilities - ok I’m not looking to do Top 14 games - but there it is, that’s the rule and nobody seems to want to challenge it.
So to stay involved in the game, I joined up with a local club (pre Covid) to at least train with the lads, to stay fit. Great fun and a fantastic way to meet people. But it did take me a while to get used to arriving for training to be greeted by “bises” from 6’5" bearded 2nd rows…!
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Again, my experience is good - the MT we have here is by far the best I’ve had in my life; there’s a good dentist; there’s a pharmacie here, and in almost every village, and in my experience they have huge expertise; and the infirmier à domicile (district nurses) service is wonderful beyond words. This is all in a village tiny by UK standards - less than 1,000 inhabitants.
I have heard reports of villages without MTs - my guess is that many people here just have far too high expectations - they want doctors’ surgeries in villages of just a couple of hundred people.
The French Health Service is clearly better in general terms, but how much more costly is it? One reason why the cost of living is higher must be the amount needed to fund the health service. And yes, I know there is a good argument for having an expensive healthcare system. It does, however, I believe, create a nation of hypochondriacs. I remember hearing a French sociologist saying that once upon a time there was a bar in every village, and now there is a pharmacy.
Is that chicken or egg though?
ISTR the French put in about 13% GDP which is pretty high, UK is ~9%. the US is massive though - about 17% which shows that not having a public health service can be even more expensive than having one.
Our Commune has a total of around 250 and no facilities apart from La Poste at the Mairie some mornings.
I don’t know where you have lived in UK, but saying villages with less 1,000 inhabitants covers a multitude of sins.
There certainly is a grain of truth in the ‘nation of hypochondriacs’ charge - loath though I am to generalise, this is built in to state thinking - so when you get your routine test notifications for various cancers etc every 2 years they say ‘the next time you go to your MT’ - assuming everyone goes at least once a year (whereas many Englishmen, like me, don’t generally go to the doctors for years at a time).
Hypochondria, or prudence? I wonder if heart / cancer conditions etc are caught earlier among men in France, with a correspondingly better chance of a good outcome?
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I take your point - I actually went to our doctor with one of our kids, he quite suddenly asked me how old I was, and decided to give me a once-over there and then, which included a blood test - which was how they found I had cancer before I had any symptoms (I thought - in retrospect I did have very mild symptoms, which I had just put down to getting older).
However, I think the French probably do consume a few too many health products, so maybe a bit of both hypochondria and prudence.
My former parents-in-law live in Dorset in a ‘village’ of about 7000 people (yes, ‘village’, seven thousand) and there is nothing, not a post office, not a dr, not a shop, not a pub, not an artisan, nothing. It is pretty but it’s a soulless hellhole.
And yet just a very few miles away is another much smaller village which friends of mine have completely energised and revitalised and there is a LOT going on and lots of varied jobs.
I agree ,a male relative,who has prided himself on his life long good health and avoiding the doctor became ill quite quickly and was diagnosed with a genetic condition which as now caused a form of diabetes and cancer,but would have been easily dealt with years ago
No pharmacie in my village of fewer than 1000 but here’s what we DO have: maternelle and primary school, agricultural lycée, library, post office, tabac (and régie for the vignerons), dentist, hairdresser, beauty place, bakery, grocery, 4 restaurants, café, lots of vineyards, wine co-op, historic monument and museum, a number of listed buildings, errrr I think that’s it. argh forgot the stainless steel mega cuve-maker!
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Cancer survival rates are higher in france than the UK in general, and things like the number of MRI machines per head of population is much higher which helps diagnosis. France does also do more PSA testing which is controversial in the UK because of false positives.
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and tomorrow, I am having a routine cystoscopie which I am advised is standard protocol every 2 years following minor prostat surgery a couple of years ago with regular PSA testing to keep matters under control. French health care, for me, is exceptional.
It’s controversial, not just in the UK.
It is important to avoid over-treating cancer - in particular small groups of cancerous cells are almost inevitable if you have a prostate and live long enough but do not necessarily go on to clinically significant disease. Treating a prostate cancer that was never going to cause symptoms or any harm to the patient might help your statistics but it is not in the patient’s interest.
Cancer survival figures are notoriously sensitive to how the data is recorded - I’ll see if I have time to dig a bit deeper.
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- happened to me yesterday when a (young) lady indicated there were 2 people waiting in front of me.
If people want to contribute to combatting rural medical deserts then perhaps they should go to their doctors more? …Many rural ones are self-employed so no patients = no money. And who wants to buy into a low earning practice?
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For me it was the order in which to do things. Health (cpam), tax, driving license etc. Then also the etiquette and socialising.
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Definitely bureaucracy. Going to CPAM and being knocked back twice because we didn’t have the correct bits of paper.
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