The public healthcare system in Crisis?

[anotherbanana]

I am lucky enough to pop into the local health centre and to pow wow with the service secretary who offers me appointments from her ‘reserved list’ within 48 hours but I usually ask for late Friday. I get an email reminder, not letters etc.

The last specialist I saw was the opthalmo who was very good but his secretariat was very controlling, seemingly to give appointments depending on her idea of what was urgent; as a diabetic getting the eyes checked is important so I let her know this after she tried to bump me off the list for three months. She immediately reinstated my appointment.

[NormanH]

menthe " Judith, I can't agree that communication is not what it was.  I feel débordée by too MUCH communication!  For example, when we have a RdV, we get a phone call from the relevant secrètariat, then a convocation sent by post, then a reminder SMS to give the exact date and time of the RdV together with all the things you need to bring in your dossier and any instructions such as being à jeun.  Often, there is another phone call as well to make sure we have understood the instructions given and so on.

I'm NOT complaining mind; with my scatter brain tendencies, I feel reassured that such care is taken.  Similarly with actual info given at the RdV.  Not only does the doctor tell us everything they have found, including diagnosis, they give us a copy of the letter they write to the MT or, on occasion, a summary of their findings and recommended course of action."

You   seem to be living in a parallel universe 😇

IF I can get a RDV on Doctolib I do get a reminder SMS but never a letter, never a phone call, (thank goodness as if ever I call the receptionist they are extremely dismissive)

and for example from the last scanner out of date information about the 'produit' that they proscribed for ME to bring even though since the 1st April it is the scanner centre ITSELF that provides it. That set me off on a worrying wild goose chase to find something that pharmacies no longer stock

Then I phoned  the health centre where my MT was one of the Doctors to make an appointment and the receptionist said 'il ne travaille plus ici' and put  the phone down without suggesting one of the other  Doctors. I  had to embark on the VERY difficult task of finding a Doctor who was accepting new patients. Béziers is attracting a number of retirees at the moment, all looking for a MT so there is a serious shortage.

When I finally found one she wanted me to see my cardiologist as the result of a scan she sent me for showed  that as well as a totally blocked carotid artery on the left the one on the right was going the same way, which is obviously NOT good news.

On Doctolib there were no RDV available so I phoned the receptionist who said that I hadn’t seen him for over a year so I couldn’t just waltz in like that (the French equivalent obviosuly

 

So I had to cheat by sending a mail AS IF from my MT with the various scan results to his own email direct and THEN I had an immediate emergency RDV two days later at 8 am, (he keeps a couple slots open before his main list of the day

Two amusing sidelines. 1) he obviously hadn’t noticed that the email with the results was from me , not my MT because he said that my Doctor had provided him with very full information

2) The receptionist who arrived while I was in the consultation wasn’t the old dragon who had been so rude. It was a new younger one who made a follow up appointment and when I commented that she wasn’t the same one as usual said that the old one no longer worked there and that “on est mieux seule que mal accommpagnée” so she shared my opinon of her predecessor I reckon

 

[NormanH]

For some reason the soft ware  wouldn't allow me to edit my earlier post so I repeated it here. Could you delete the previous incomplete one please?

 

 

[DaveLister]

13 minutes ago, NormanH said:

For some reason the soft ware  wouldn't allow me to edit my earlier post so I repeated it here. Could you delete the previous incomplete one please?

 

your wish sir........

[menthe]

The one "elephant in the room" is the shutdown during the pandemic.  Certainly, all access to all medical services have been adversely affected.  My lovely dentist retired, when I was hunting a physio I found half of them in town have retired, ditto with MTs.

In fact, my most wonderful and special MT committed suicide!!

Same thing in the UK, from anecdotes of friends and families.  Not just medical services apparently.  I was told many freelance classical musicians retired.

As for all those working from home initiatives, I read from the papers that in the UK, many public service workers still WFH and are difficult to entice back to their offices.

I don't know many French people of working age (at least not well) but the few that I see regularly have all gone back to work in their er..places of work.

 

[Noisette]

I think you're confounding the results of Covid and the long-standing potential crisis in the health service, @menthe.  The Government have known for decades that there would be a shortage of MTs, given their average ages and the unwillingness of newly-qualified ones to leave the cities. To be fair, the Gov did try various incentives to prevent a major crisis but it simply didn't work. They also made a grave mistake when they reduced the number of student doctors training....an ongoing error, apparently.

Probably a prime example of the division and incomprehension between Paris and the rest of France. 

On a local level, the Press are regularly highlighting the problem and heads of Conseils Départementaux do seem to pressing for measures to be taken en urgence. Will the Gov listen?

[menthe]

Yes, Noisette, you are correct in all that you have said but no, I didn't confound the increase in problems during and post pandemic with the already existing problems.

I only meant that the pandemic had brought all problems to the fore.  Since we moved here in 2007, we were aware of problems but they didn't seem that unmanageable, partly because we did not have anything serious to be treated.

Year on year the gaps in the service widened and became more and more worrying for everybody.  Time was when you could change your doctor if you didn't like or agree with them and you could easily find someone else.  In fact, as late as 2017, I was able to change my oncologue simply by going to the secretariat and requesting another one.

Now, I don't think I'd dare make such a request....in case they say well if you don't like it you know what you can do!

Happily, so far, especially in the last couple of years, both of us have had nothing but health problems and we have both had timely and expert treatment so I don't think I can give a balanced view on this.

 

[Noisette]

I'm truly happy for you both 😊  If I survive the wait for diagnosis and treatment, I'll be happy for myself, too 🤣

[menthe]

Noisette, I hope it all works out well for you.  Bon courage and you'd need tons of it!

[menthe]

On 17/09/2024 at 13:13, NormanH said:

menthe " Judith, I can't agree that communication is not what it was.  I feel débordée by too MUCH communication!  For example, when we have a RdV, we get a phone call from the relevant secrètariat, then a convocation sent by post, then a reminder SMS to give the exact date and time of the RdV together with all the things you need to bring in your dossier and any instructions such as being à jeun.  Often, there is another phone call as well to make sure we have understood the instructions given and so on.

I'm NOT complaining mind; with my scatter brain tendencies, I feel reassured that such care is taken.  Similarly with actual info given at the RdV.  Not only does the doctor tell us everything they have found, including diagnosis, they give us a copy of the letter they write to the MT or, on occasion, a summary of their findings and recommended course of action."

You   seem to be living in a parallel universe 😇

IF I can get a RDV on Doctolib I do get a reminder SMS but never a letter, never a phone call, (thank goodness as if ever I call the receptionist they are extremely dismissive)

and for example from the last scanner out of date information about the 'produit' that they proscribed for ME to bring even though since the 1st April it is the scanner centre ITSELF that provides it. That set me off on a worrying wild goose chase to find something that pharmacies no longer stock

Then I phoned  the health centre where my MT was one of the Doctors to make an appointment and the receptionist said 'il ne travaille plus ici' and put  the phone down without suggesting one of the other  Doctors. I  had to embark on the VERY difficult task of finding a Doctor who was accepting new patients. Béziers is attracting a number of retirees at the moment, all looking for a MT so there is a serious shortage.

When I finally found one she wanted me to see my cardiologist as the result of a scan she sent me for showed  that as well as a totally blocked carotid artery on the left the one on the right was going the same way, which is obviously NOT good news.

On Doctolib there were no RDV available so I phoned the receptionist who said that I hadn’t seen him for over a year so I couldn’t just waltz in like that (the French equivalent obviosuly

 

So I had to cheat by sending a mail AS IF from my MT with the various scan results to his own email direct and THEN I had an immediate emergency RDV two days later at 8 am, (he keeps a couple slots open before his main list of the day

Two amusing sidelines. 1) he obviously hadn’t noticed that the email with the results was from me , not my MT because he said that my Doctor had provided him with very full information

2) The receptionist who arrived while I was in the consultation wasn’t the old dragon who had been so rude. It was a new younger one who made a follow up appointment and when I commented that she wasn’t the same one as usual said that the old one no longer worked there and that “on est mieux seule que mal accommpagnée” so she shared my opinon of her predecessor I reckon

 

For some reason, I have only just seen this long and amusing post of yours.  I think it was very ingenious on your part to send that email to get the RdV.  In my parallel universe, and to give an example of the equivalent of your scan, I rang the secretariat who asked me to send them the ordonnance for the scan. Sent it in a email and, on the SAME day, the secretariat rang and gave us the date for the TEP scan for OH.

The the convocation arrived with all relevant instructions, including bringing a drape or blanket as it might be cold!  After that the phone call, etc, as described in my earlier post.

Now I wish to explain to you NOT to worry about those blocked blood vessels, all OH's coronary blood supply vessels were blocked 70-90%.  We had no inkling he had such a thing.  Admittedly there was a lot of drama at the time of the insertion of stents and in the end the process was long-drawn out and very worrying.  BUT you are not the age of OH and so the process is likely to be a lot less "emergency SOS".  I suspect that once the cardiologue has seen you, they will want to whip you into hospital PDQ and sort it out.

Just sit tight and wait for the consultation and prepare yourself and your home for a stay in the hospital.  Good Luck!

[Harnser]

On 16/09/2024 at 07:26, NormanH said:

Whereas you DO rely on mediabiasfactcheck which shows the Huffington post as being American, when the site I refer to is the French one?

The french site comes up as not particularly reliable either.

In France, fears have been expressed about the appointment of Anne Sinclair as editor-in-chief, who is not "politically neutral" . This very notion would seem futile to Arianna Huffington. The more the opinion articles on her site are unexpected or generate debate, regardless of what she thinks about them, the more they promote her.

https://www.lemonde.fr/actualite-medias/article/2012/01/23/le-huffington-post-succes-et-controverse_1633080_3236.html

 

On 16/09/2024 at 07:26, NormanH said:

 

 

 

 

[NormanH]

What is unreliable in the Huffington.fr  article  I originally made, and how can you prove it? Or are you just biassed against anything that you consider 'left'?

[ssomon]

On Doctolib, there is a "switch" on the page showing RDV's you have, marked

" Prendre rendez-vous plus tôt ?

Recevez une alerte si un rendez-vous se libère avant le vôtre."

I recently noticed this, and activated it for a RDV with a specialist which I made a couple of weeks ago, for the earliest slot available at the time, which was in mid-October.

Within a couple of minutes I was offered a slot early next week, but by the time I had checked my and my wife's calendars, someone had taken it.

I received two more offers the next day; one was not convenient, but I quickly accepted the next one, for next week.

[menthe]

I have not had had to ask for an earlier RdV with a specialist.  I did need to see my MT quickly once and I rang the number of his cabinet (though he has no secretarial support on site).  Someone answered and asked for a reason for an urgent RdV.  She took my number and rang a couple of hours later.  I rang on a Friday afternoon and was seen the following afternoon.