Renovation project - Accident & Emergency in France

Renovation project - Accident & Emergency in France

We are carrying on with all the little jobs, I have the fun of taking the rubbish to the skip, this takes 3 journeys but we once again have an empty garden.

John is working on the little house when I hear him shout, he doesn’t shout again so I finish making a drink before I go in to check he is alright, obviously if he wasn’t he would have shouted again, right? Wrong, when I get to him he is sat there holding his hand.

He was finishing the last plug socket in the granite when the drill snatched, which knocked his hand, resulting in his finger facing the wrong way, it was totally dislocated, he had already popped it back in when I arrived. But, it is still bending the wrong way, this is not good.

We sit and try to decide if it is worth going to the Urgences (A&E) as we don’t think they will be able to do anything other than strap it up. But half an hour later it is still bending the wrong way.

We head off to the Urgences, once we arrive, we check in and John has to show his ID, his carte vitale and his assurance (medical insurance) we sit in the waiting room and in no time at all see a triage nurse, who sends him for x-rays.

Anybody using Urgences in France will require ID, unless you have a French ID card, it is usually a passport that is required.

X-rays completed, John comes back to the waiting room with a piece of paper, this gives him his log on details should he want to see his x-rays on line!

Next it is to the doctor who explains it is not broken, but the tendons or ligaments (this got a little lost in translation) have been torn.

We had a couple of words that we struggled with and the doctor used Google translate for these.

He straps the fingers and tells John to see his GP in 10 days to have them checked.

This all took approx one hour from start to finish; this had been my biggest nightmares, having a medical emergency. But it was so simple and efficient. Yet again we cannot fault the French health care system.

We have a relaxing night and take tomorrow off.