Distances

[idun]

There are obviously many reasons why any of us chose to live where we live, but as France is just so big in comparison to the UK, did any of you ever take into consideration how far main hospitals would be if there was serious illness, accident, or just those things that happen, ie heart attack, stroke?

I know we didn't when we moved to France, but frankly still in my twenties, such a thought would not have crossed my mind, however, it did when we moved back to England and was one of the things on my list of things I would want available and not tooooo far away, although not on the doorstep.

As it happened in France, we were not too far from hospitals, the nearest A&E was 18kms, in the other direction, we had huge hospitals 40kms away. So now just under 18kms feels OK.

[YCCMB]

I think we are all mostly a bit blasé about that kind of thing until we begin to feel the effects of time and age. The lovely, secluded house, the big garden, the enforced drive to the nearest shop...none of them seem too important in your 40's or even 50's if you're in good health, active and fit. But they slowly take on greater and greater importance with age and general frailty.

I've heard many friends bemoaning the work involved in maintaining a big house and land, and witnessed some in France having real problems when faced with a hospital stay over an hours drive from home. It's all even trickier if friends can't visit and you're stuck miles away with perhaps only a tenuous grip on the language.

[Jonzjob]

I have to admit that our lovely secluded house with the big beautiful garden was the other side of Carcassonne from the hospital and about 18 months ago I had to spend a couple of weeks in said hopital !! So, I got it moved and now the new one is our side of Carcassonne and about 5 miles away [8-|][8-|]

Well, you have to have some input into the system init [:-))]

I'm glad to say that I haven't had to visit the new jobbie. Mind you, in my stay in the old one I lost over 10 kilos in hose 15 daze! Must have been the good food [+o(]

[Gardengirl]

Good idea getting the hospital moved - why didn't others think of that!

Yes, that's one of the things we definitely thought about, along with the various ways of getting here and back to UK by air and by train, but we were already retired, although none of the serious illnesses of the last few years had appeared then.

Several owners of apartments in our residence had thought the local hospital, just minutes from us, was indeed a normal hospital - it's actually a centre for caring for old people and specialises in care of those with dementia.

We also know several people who bought those lovely big places with land, which necessitate getting into the car for every need/want, and, yes, as they've got older their wants and needs have changed. On walks with groups we go on, there are often admiring comments about houses with views etc, and I generally throw in about it being a long way for bread/milk, to which the answer is always, yes, not a place to actually live in - we all tend towards the pensioner age group!

But of course, those who mostly keep their health until a ripe old age and are content to drive to the nearest big village/small town seem pretty happy about it. Sometimes it takes the death or disability of the one who is the main driver/French speaker for their choice of a more isolated house to really be of huge importance.

[Patf]

Even for shorter distances the lack of public transport is something we never considered or realised.

Tomorrow we have to drive 20km for a clinic appt. in Auch and I'm not looking forward to it  - icy roads etc.

[NormanH]

Good transport in and out of the place plus good  medical and other facilities sur place was with price and climate the main reason for deciding to buy where I did, and I haven't regretted that side at all

[lindal1000]

Interesting.. I would agree that ease of getting there and back is more important than actual distance. In Uk we were only 20 miles from the major specialist centre but in traffic it could take up to 2 hours and absolutely no parking. Caused me lots of problems when I was ill as I couldn't drive or manage on the bus for a while. Here in France we're also about 2 hours from the nearest specialist centre but a lot further in distance. In the UK and France, unless you collapse within an hour of somewhere like Kings, or other big trauma centre you're going to be disadvantaged.

[andyh4]

As it happens distance from a hospital was not something on our check list when we bought in France. But then it was not on our list when we were in the UK either. By coincidence we are nearly as far away in France as we were in the UK and in both cases it is quite a long way away.

As age increases and health problems increase this may prove to be an error. Let's hope not. I do not plan to move just to be closer to a hospital - well not currently.

[mint]

I am at a bit of a tangent to most of the posts on here.

Why shouldn't people have the big house, the massive garden, in the middle of nowhere when they could manage perfectly well and things were under control?

It's like driving a car, as long as the lights are green, you keep on driving ahead, don't you?  You wouldn't stop driving just in case the next set of lights might be red?

Frankly, I think you live as you wish, in the big house with the large garden and miles away from facilities if that's what you want.

OK, you get older and you can no longer manage so then you move!  Every stage in life presents different challenges and I think it's silly to be old before it's time or indeed to stop doing things because, as someone has said, you are a long time dead.

You make decisions and choices appropriate to your needs and preferences at the time.  I knew a couple some years ago who were in their 50s and they were looking to move to a bungalow "ready for retirement" because they would no longer want to do stairs!

I was flabbergasted by such ridiculous thinking.

[Cendrillon]

As usual Betty I think you have made very good points.

[idun]

mint, there is nothing wrong with it, I wondered if it came into the equation.

 Lots of things, including hospitals came into mine, that is for sure, as did a lot of other convenient things. And I lived in the country side for 25 years and for all it can be, it wasn't always the tranquil idyll, we had many of the problems some other posters have mentioned over the years........... these problems came and went...........

........... and now we're in a town and towns also have their ups and downs, but that is people and life. It's just I'm closer to the things I need to be near now and that is a great bonus for me.

Where ever any of us chose to live though, is there anything wrong with a practical check list?

[Cendrillon]

"Where ever any of us chose to live though, is there anything wrong with a practical check list?"

Sound advice, Idun[:)]

[mint]

[quote user="idun"]mint, there is nothing wrong with it, I wondered if it came into the equation.

 Lots of things, including hospitals came into mine, that is for sure, as did a lot of other convenient things. And I lived in the country side for 25 years and for all it can be, it wasn't always the tranquil idyll, we had many of the problems some other posters have mentioned over the years........... these problems came and went...........

........... and now we're in a town and towns also have their ups and downs, but that is people and life. It's just I'm closer to the things I need to be near now and that is a great bonus for me.

Where ever any of us chose to live though, is there anything wrong with a practical check list?

[/quote]

Id, of course, it comes into the equation.  But, everyone's equation is different and everyone's equation also changes with their own change in circumstances.

You keep an eye on the future but you really, really don't need to think of every conceivable contingency.  Most of the things that we can't deal with are mostly those that come out of the blue and, in that case, you can't possibly plan for them, can you?

[michelin79]

We are putting some thought into the location of hospitals for our next French house and a question arises which I'm sure many of you will be able to answer (we've only had a holiday home and don't have the personal experience).

Are there any county boundaries in the health system? That is, if the heart attack happens, will I be taken to the nearest hospital or to the nearest in our departement? And the same question for routine surgery or investigation.

[idun]

All I can tell you is that I lived on the border with another county and people were automatically taken to the nearest main hospital, which was in the next county....... and always by the sapeurs pompiers. 

Where I lived we never called an ambulance for a medical emergency.

[idun]

mint it depends on what each of needs in our lives doesn't it. As I said, when we arrived in France in our twenties, I could not have envisaged needing much, nothing was an obstacle, ie was miles and miles from the maternity hospital when I was pregnant, think I even drove myself there to be honest.

However, within 6 or 7years of moving to France, my world changed. I lived for years and years with knowing that I could have a terrible debilitating illness which would normally start later in life and see me off by my mid sixties having been in a deplorable state prior to my demise. I didn't have it, just luck really, but it made me look at life in a very different way to most other people do. As it happens I have other things wrong with me now, but I do try and look at all contingencies for a comfortable life, including having a home that can adapt to future needs and having public transport and anything medical that I may require in the vicinity.

In France I had splendid views, but frankly, I didn't always look at them, even if I was outside, head in a book or sudoku or just chatting to friends and family. As it happens I have some now good views, but even if I didn't, I would be in splendid countryside or coastline within ten minutes anyway. I find actual comfort in having those things that top my 'list', rather than being far from the madding crowd.

[NormanH]

I was working in a residential centre on the Gorges du Tarn which winds its way between the Lozère and the Aveyron when I had a suspected stroke.

The Doctor called for an ambulance and two arrived, one from Mende, which is the Préfecture of the Lozère and one from Millau which is the sous préfecture of the Aveyron.

In the end I was taken to hoptital in Millau which is not only in a different départment to the one the centre is in, but even a different région, Millau being in Midi-Pyrenées and the centre being in Languedoc-Roussillion.

Proof of what idun said.

[idun]

 Where we get taken is fairly simple, it's who would do it, who to ring that I suppose everyone needs to find out. And sometimes it would be the ambulance, but not where I lived.