French medical care.??

I am due to be heading off to France on Friday for my annual family hols.

I am rather nervous this year as my asthma is not at all controlled at the moment and am worried that I will have problems while away. I usually improve while over there but have never started the holiday as bad as I am at the mo.

I have managed to find out about the location of the local hossie but dont know a thing about how things work over there and I am a member of medic alert so I know i have that back up.

My GP has expressed his concerns over the trip but has left the final decision to me.

I have plenty of allmy meds plus extra to allow for any further deterioration

I just wondered if anyone knows anything about how things work there in the way of A + E services etc or if anyone has any experience as well. Thanks in advance.

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Hi

I was in France recently and splatted on Easter and ended up in hospital. I don't know how it works in England, but there didn't seem to be a waiting room, they just plopped me on to a stretcher and rolled me to an exam room. It didn't take any time at all to be seen, and received excellent care while in A +E. I was admitted only for two nights, with no major problems.

They told us we would have to pay upon leaving the hospital, but since I had bloodwork done, they couldn't know the exact amount and decided to send the bill to my house. This worked out well in the end though, and we let my insurance deal with it.

Hope this helped a little bit. I really hope that you will be ok, and not have to visit the local costa! Good luck, and have a good time!

Brynne

P.S. I noticed the docs there were wearing jeans and flip-flops?? Is that weird or does that happen in the U.K.?

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Hops, if you can hold on a day or 2 I will get Mummy an retired French teacher and veteran of taking little darlings to A&E in france to pass on what she can. Make sure you have your new EU card thingie that replaces the old E111.

Bex

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Hi there Kirsten,

make sure you have EHIC (the new E111) with you, and decent insurance. French health care has a good reputation, and certainly the impression I have is that you should be fine, although I have no personal experience. I suppose the most likely problem is of communication - if you have a written protocol for your treatment can you get it translated before you go - you might have to pay for that but it should be fairly easy to have done - i have had things translated into Latvian etc for patients going home before so French should be easy enough. Try phoning your local council or hospital and asking for their racial equalities/diversity person, they should be able to tell you who they use for that kind of thing. Also it might be possible to check what the drugs you are on are called in French - should be ok if you avoid using trade names but even so some drugs are called different things in different places or not available.

Oh, and the french love to give drugs rectally, what a lovely thought!

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I have my new whatever it is card sorted(one that replaces E111) and Mum and Dad did the insurance so hope its ok (theyl eft this am to drive down to site!!)

Owl eeeuuuggghhhh! Dont fancy anything rectally ta very much!! never heard of hydro done that way or mag sulph!!!

havent really got time to try and get stuff translated i suppose i did a bit of an ostrich trick and just hoped i would pick up before we go!! I am going to aska friend who is quite flto see if she can translate anything!!

Bex - im off v early friday morn so anything mum could help with would be most grateful pleeeaaasssee!

Brynne- sorry you splatted on hols i do that when in Dublin! S ounds like they are quite good from what you say , where abouts were you i will be near Nimes.

Re Drs and clothing yes some wear jeans over hear but havent seen flip flops on any yet!!

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Re: getting meds translated - I think there's a tool available on the net to translate meds - Babel doctor or something?

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Hops, I was in Lille, which is quite the funky city from what I saw lol.

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Here you go Hops:

doctorbabel.com/

Incidentally, if you're off the crutches now, can we still call you Hops?!

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Hops - speak to medic alert as they do translation cards !!

Not sure if you got time but if you explain it is urgent (I think there is a small fee though) !!

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Thanks for the link Cathbear i now have history(v rough!!!) and meds translated into French one less thing to worry about the only thing i didnt like about it was you arent able to highlight imprtant notes such as being allergic to aminophyllin!!

Hops i shall stay as the op was a stop gap before a total hip replacement (not too soon i hope) plus i still often walk with a limp so still quite apt!!

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Hops,

I've splatted in France and found the Lyon health care very good indeed. I didn't have many rectal drugs but did have some sort of glass capsule you had to break open and then hold the contents under your tongue for about a minute which tasted of metal, I never worked out what it was for either which was worrying - am still here though!

Have fun, France is lovely

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Cal - i dont do rectal !! just the thought of it makes me shake!!! stuff under tongue sounds different!!

Am seeing GP tomorrow to finalise a plan of action (hes still not happy but knows im a stubborn c*w!!) also to get updated letter re flying with nebs/epipen etc!

Lungs are still disobeying my orders despite a very severe talking to so am intending to do as little aspossible and alot of sofa surfing!!