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Complaint about a doctor


Suninfrance
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Can anyone tell me how I should go about making a complaint about a doctor.

Just had the most awful and upsetting experience with a rheumatologist in Brive and I want to make a complaint about the way I was treated, and her positively rude attitude towards both me, as the patient and my husband who came with me.

Also the fact that the Tarif advertised on the waiting room wall for appointments was for €23 and she charged us €40 which is a hell of a lot of money to pay to be abused by someone who is supposed to be in the "caring" profession.

Jan [:@]

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Don't forget that Doctors in town are 'profession libérale' that is to say self-employed professionals.

You pay them and are reimbursed. They are not employed.

Unless you can show malpractice I am not sure who would listen.

I have commented before on the lack of a good bedside manner among some French Doctors who are often better technically than they are at interpersonal relations.

Sorry that you came across one like this when you need help.

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Thanks Norman

Just so angry and upset when I came out of there.  Her attitude was "superior", hardly gave me a proper examination, and basically implied I was wasting her time, when my OH asked her if she could talk a little more slowly, she said NO, and when we left she became quite loud and aggressive in front of everyone in the waiting room when she told us to see her secretary to pay.

Horrible, horrible woman.

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http://www.conseil63.ordre.medecin.fr/node/2449

As it says on this web site, they must have a notice board up with the tarifs explained.  If you are not going to see this Dr again, then get in touch with your local DGCCRF, I would. I have got in touch with mine and they got onto my complaint.

If you think that this is the best Dr for you, then you have been warned that they are expensive.

RE french doctors, well, they are an odd old bunch. If the french would like the world to believe that there is no class system in France, then the medical world certainly has it's own. The hierarchy is well established and one can feel that the patients to some, are some sort of inconvenience.

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[quote user="idun"]

RE french doctors, well, they are an odd old bunch. If the french would like the world to believe that there is no class system in France, then the medical world certainly has it's own. The hierarchy is well established and one can feel that the patients to some, are some sort of inconvenience.

[/quote]

Quite agree, idun. Most that I've come across are kind and sympathetic. I had a very nice cardio at first, an elderly man with no airs and graces, who spoke to me face to face..

But he's retired now, and his replacement is a youngish woman who barely speaks to me. She corresponds via her nurse, sits at her desk typing on the 'puter.

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They do have a code of practice, but as you can see here it is fairly 'mechanical'

http://www.conseil-national.medecin.fr/groupe/17/tous

From what you say it seems that she didn't really live up to this bit:

Ces soins seront consciencieux et dévoués. La conscience

professionnelle du médecin implique attention minutieuse, disponibilité

et compétence, ainsi qu'une juste appréciation des limites de cette

compétence. Elle est conscience aux deux sens du terme : perception

lucide d'une situation (médecin conscient) et honnêteté du comportement

(médecin consciencieux)

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This doesn't answer your question, but our experience of the medical profession in France has been:

  • 10% excellent
  • 20% good
  • 40% fine
  • 20% iffy
  • 10% awful

Incidentally, we reckon that UK experience was pretty much the same.

Oh and BTW, the same in just about in any other customer-facing situation, whether here or in the UK.

Sadly, you experienced one of the awful ones - they really are quite rare, whether here or in the UK. Most practitioners are above that. Furthermore, a complaint may well be a waste of time and effort.

Too late now of course, but I'd have chucked my money at her and told the waiting room what I thought of her style. But then hindsight is a wonderful thing isn't it?  Best forgotten.

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Doctors are a funny bunch and specialists are funnier still. My doctor referred me to a skin specialist and he warned me in advance that the man didn't have much of a bedside manner and might seem unfriendly and uninterested, but he also assured me that he was an excellent specialist and the best person to treat my condition. As it turned out he seemed OK, just very aloof and impatient. And his diagnosis and treatment solved my problem.

Just to add, it seems common for specialists to charge more than the standard 23€ consultation fee that GPs charge, so the OP may not have been ripped off as badly as she thinks - maybe there was some small print on the notice up on the wall.
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[quote user="EuroTrash"]

Just to add, it seems common for specialists to charge more than the standard 23€ consultation fee that GPs charge, so the OP may not have been ripped off as badly as she thinks - maybe there was some small print on the notice up on the wall.[/quote]

I've seen several specialists in our time here, and they've never charged less than 45€.

I don't think that's expensive.

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Lots of useful advice here, so thank you all.

My French is pretty poor, but my ability to detect "attitude" is very good and this lady had seriously bad attitude to the point that we felt she was very anti-English.

I have an appointment with my own doctor on Monday and have prepared a letter for her telling her what happened.

We have just changed doctors at my local surgery because our original one had  very little in the way of people skills and on a recent conversation some of our friends had with him when they met him at a dinner included the fact that he definately did not have time to deal with people who were under the influence or alcohol and that they should be left to die in the street.  Need I say more.

Our new doctor is the complete opposite, she is gentle and kind and will speak slowly when we ask it of her.

Back to the witch who calls herself a rheumatologist.  I was referred by my own doctor and while we were in the salle d'attente I saw the Tarif notice on the wall for her clinic and it said with CV the fee was €23.  She had trouble getting my card to work and took one of those brown forms out of her desk, but she did not give it to me.  She never actually said whether she got my card to work either, so I'm wondering if this is why I was charged so much.

As to whether I will continue with a formal complaint, I will speak to my own doctor first after she has had a chance to read my letter.

Thanks for all your responses and tips.

Jan

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My OH has just come back from our doc's and she asked how I had got on with the rheumatologist, so he told her and she was horrified and said that I wasn't her first patient to have had a bad experience with this woman.  I shall still give my doc my letter, and maybe in future, she will refer her patients elsewhere.

Jan

xxx

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Hope you can find a more sympathetic specialist.

As you say, she could be one of those people who just can't stand the british. 

I've come across a few, the only solution is to avoid them.

My mother, a gentle old soul, couldn't stand the french.

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