A trip to A&E!

[Jongleur]

Hi Jongleuse here

Thought for those of you never having visited your local hospital for the Accident department, you may find it quite different. No doubt if you are dripping blood everywhere or unconscious at the door you will be seen at once, but for having a shovelful of grit and sand still in your eye and dripping water all over the place, you need patience!!.

This was our second trip (broken finger in January!). As we now had our attestation and health cover, we stoppped at the welcome desk for A&E only to be told by a nurse to go to the Office. Fortunately no-one was in front of us, so in we troop. Yes we remember you, let's have the social security number and address etc and any documents you have this time! I felt a bit uneasy then - we still haven't been charged for last time!

We sat down and waited for about 20 minutes, then were ushered in to the same room (no 5 with teddies painted on the wall) by the same nurse and seen by the same doctor as last time. The nurse on hearing our sorry tale (another self-inflicted bricoleur injury) suggested we might like a "carte de fidelite".

What was actually surprising was that having been given some painkilling drops in his eye, Jongleur was told that the hospital could not treat this injury! We were given complicated instructions on going about 1km away to an Opthamologist, who was waiting. These are the people you have to go to to get your prescription for contact lenses and glasses.

A short drive and another short wait, but yes we were then seen by the doctor. A bit of gory treatment later, clutching his prescription with a swollen red eye and sniffing manfully, Jongleur proclaimed himself to be feeling better thank you! This doctor must apparently be "on call" for the hospital and will see emergencies without appointments. Again, like all the health professionals we have seen here in France, he was very pleasant and helpful.

I took the opportunity to ask about glasses and contact lenses and having the children's eyes tested sometime. He's definitely the man to go to - 23 euros a time for consultations, which we get back through CPAM and top up cover.

So, be prepared with minor (even if painful) eye injuries, to be sent to the eye doctor!!

I'm dreading the next visit - in 3 months no doubt!!

Regards
Jongleuse

By the way once you have had a prescription filled by a chemist who is geared up to the computerised systems, when you next go to that chemist, you only show name and number as you are already registered, so no need to fill in those brown forms - the computer does it all and the chemist sends them off with no money changing hands - unless it is a medicine which CPAM does not reimburse!!!

[Soleil]

This reminds me of my experience of French healthcare last May. We were to go to Paris for a week to stay with relations. He had an excellent barbecue planned for the Friday when we were to arrive. I got up at 7 am to tidy the garden before leaving but I ended up in absolute agony on the lawn. I struggled back into the house with increasing pain in my lower abdomen and woke my dearly beloved with "You had better call a Doctor"; She did. I rolled about the bed getting worse by the minute. He arrived and asked for my health cover. She gave him the details. He gave me a painkilling injection which didn't work. He called an ambulance and gave Dear heart a bill for 30 euros. Dear heart came to me "You won't believe this but sign this cheque. He is waiting for it"
The ambulance took me to the private clinic where I was left in agony ,and I mean agony ,in a corridor for about half an hour before being wheeled into a sideroom where the nurse sat at her computer and asked for all the details. Dear heart, bless her , burst out laughing and said that I was obviously in great pain but the nurse said she wouldn't give me anything because I was going to be Xrayed and they wanted me to be in pain for that. Dear heart told me later that she coudn't help laughing because it was so funny seeing the nurse ignoring me whilst she did her administration. Eventually I had the xrays done and a doctor, english speaking:,gave me a fix before having me wheeled off to a small ward already occupied by a Turkish immigrant who kept getting told off by the nurses for complaining. I had a kidney stone which within a day passed naturally - what a relief.
I was only in hospital for one day but it was interesting having a conversation in Franglais/Frankish and my ward mate's relatives kept feeding me genuine turkish delight. At 5pm the consultant came to see me again, another english speaker, and said,"English go home". I did.
Moral of the story - keep the medical details handy,keep a cheque signed, never get pregnant because if having a baby is as painful as that I'm pleased I'm a man, if you have to be in hospital share a room with a Turk.
Jeff

[gburrows]

Interesting story, but what has it to do with "Frequently Asked Questions"?

I thought this part of the forum was established to provide useful practical information, not memoires.

[Teamedup]

So how does this work in the Charente....you have A&E depts with people just awaiting accident victims?
How can they afford it, in fact how can we afford it, after all we pay rather large amounts of every last tax that there is in France.
And even if when we go to our local private clinics we have never had other than a wait of several hours. Although it would always depend on the nature of the accident and the time of day as to whether I would go to a private clinic as they are not as well equipped as the hospitals for A&E work.

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

We are rather a long way from hospitals; for stitches and the like most neighbours have gone to see their local doctor (or another if the usual one is unavailable). We followed their example on the one occasion and my GP saw & stitched my husband immediately, just as competently as a central London A&E without the wait; put his scheduled appointments out of course but that's one reason most of us don't mind waiting...
On the one occasion I have been admitted to hospital as an emergency (illness rather than injury) I was admitted before the paperwork was even looked at. The service overall was excellent.
Unfortunately like most things the hospitals vary enormously and I have been to visit hospitalised elderly neighbours who were far less fortunate.