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LIVING IN FRANCE

5 things to know about visiting a doctor in France

We wish all our readers good health, but it's still the case that at some point you will probably have to visit a doctor in France. And when you're there, you may find some cultural differences - here's what you need to know.

Published: 12 April 2022 16:59 CEST
5 things to know about visiting a doctor in France
Photo by XAVIER LEOTY / AFP

First things first, healthcare in France is, in the main, excellent. Care is generally of a high standard, specialists and extra testing is readily available, and if you have lived in France for more than three months you can register in the state healthcare system.

Nevertheless, the system and the care itself may well be different to what you are used to.

1 Wear your best underwear

Trips to the doctor in France often involve a physical examination and for this it’s likely that you’ll have to lose at least some clothes.

Even if you’re just visiting your GP or family doctor for a routine appointment, the doctor will frequently take the opportunity to give you a quick check-up, check heart rate, blood pressure etc.

If you have an injury or illness symptoms, the doctor will almost certainly physically examine you and you will probably have to take off at least your top and perhaps more. Stripping to your underwear is perfectly normal in a doctor’s office, but in general your keep your undergarments on unless the doctor specifically tells you to remove them.

So make sure you’re wearing some nice undies. 

READ ALSO French vocab: What to say and do if you fall sick in France

2 Take some money

You have to pay to visit the doctor in France.

Even if you are covered by either the state health system or private medical insurance, the system is that you pay the doctor and then either claim the cost back on your health insurance and – if you are resident in France – the doctor swipes your carte vitale and the state reimburses you.

READ ALSO How to get a carte vitale and why you need one

These days more and more doctors accept debit cards, but not all do so it’s wise to have some cash with you. The standard fee for a GP appointment is €25, but other appointments can be more. If you’re booking the appointment via Doctolib, the doctor’s profile will tell you whether they accept cards, cheques or cash.

How to use the French medical website Doctolib

3 Take stamps

Depending on your health issue, the doctor may order tests such as blood samples or a urine sample.

In some cases you will need to make an appointment at a medical lab to have these tests done, in other circumstances the doctor can do the tests in their office.

If the latter is the case, you will usually be asked to post the sample to the relevant lab for analysis. The doctor will seal it up in a sample pot and provide you with an envelope that is addressed, but not stamped. You will then need to affix the correct postage and put the envelope in the post.

4 Make your own specialist appointments

If you have an issue that requires a visit to a specialist, you can make an appointment directly. Sometimes your GP will recommend a specialist appointment, but if that’s the case they won’t book it for you, they will simply tell you that they recommend you see a dermatologist, gynaecologist, neurologist and it’s then up to you to book the appointment.

For Brits, this is very different to what they are used to, since in the UK the normal process is for the GP to refer you to a relevant specialist and you simply wait for the letter and go along on the date that you are offered.

In France you go ahead and book it. The advantage of this is that you usually don’t have to wait, and if one specialist has a waiting list you simply find another. The disadvantage is that it can feel quite daunting to be told to ‘go and find a neurologist to do a brain scan’. Your GP may recommend a practitioner, otherwise it’s a question of asking friends/neighbours for recommendations or going online to find someone in your area.

Likewise with routine screening appointments such as mammograms or cervical smear/pap smears – Assurance maladie will write to you and tell you when it’s time, but then it’s up to you to find the relevant practitioner and book an appointment.

If you decide you want check-ups more regularly, then you can book them yourself, you don’t need to wait for the invitation. 

5 Expect a prescription

It’s a cliché but a largely true one to say that the French love medication – a study from 2017 showed that 90 percent of doctor’s appointments result in a prescription for at least one type of medication.

READ ALSO Why do the French love medication so much?

French doctors happily prescribe remedies that can be bought over the counter in a pharmacy and if you have an injury you’re likely to be given some kind of medical aid, such as a surgical collar.  

For certain ailments, you may even be prescribed a spa cure.

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TRAVEL NEWS

What’s the deal with passport stamping in France?

There are clear guidelines in place about who should have their passport stamped when they enter or leave France - but the letter of the law doesn't always seem to be applied on the ground. Here's what you need to know.

Published: 17 May 2024 14:24 CEST
What's the deal with passport stamping in France?

When you pass through a French border control post, officers will check your passport and – in some cases – stamp the date of your entry or exit of the country onto one of the blank pages in the booklet.

Although the system should be clear and simple, it becomes complicated when conflicting information is given on the ground.

Here’s what the rules say, and whether it’s really a problem if your passport is incorrectly stamped.

Who should be stamped?

The purpose of the date stamps for entry and exit is to calculate how long you have been in France, and therefore whether you have overstayed your allowed time – whether that is the time allowed by a short-stay Schengen visa or the visa-free 90-day allowance that certain non-EU nationals benefit from. 

Those people who are exempt from 90-day restrictions should therefore not have their passports stamped.

EU passport – people who have an EU passport should not have it stamped, because they have the right to unlimited stays due to EU freedom of movement.

Dual nationals – people who have passports of both EU and non-EU countries should not be stamped when they are travelling on their EU passport. However, because the passports of dual nationals are not ‘linked’, those travelling on their non-EU passports will be stamped, unless they have other proof of residency.

READ ALSO What are the rules for dual-nationals travelling in France?

French residents – the passports of non-EU citizens who have a residency permit in France (carte de séjour) should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their permit is valid.

Visa holders – people who have a long-stay visa or a short-stay visitor visa should not be stamped, because they have the right to stay in France for as long as their visa is valid. 

Tourists/visitors – people making short visits to France who do not have a visa should be stamped, with the stamps keeping track of their 90-day allowance. Visitors from nationalities who do not benefit from the 90-day rule (eg Indians) are also stamped.

Travel practicalities

When crossing a French border, you should present your passport along with other documents – visa or carte de séjour – if relevant. Don’t wait for border guards to ask whether you are a resident.

It should be noted that the carte de séjour is not a travel document and cannot be used to cross borders, not even internal Schengen zone borders. The only valid travel documents for entering France are a passport or national ID card. Any other forms of ID – driving licence, residency card etc – cannot be used for travel purposes.

Border problems

While the rules on stamping are simple in theory, many readers of The Local have reported having their passports incorrectly stamped at the border, and this seems to be a particular problem for non-EU nationals who are resident in France.

Travellers are also often given incorrect information by border guards – for example being told that only holders of the post-Brexit Article 50 TUE carte de séjour are exempt from stamping, that all non-EU nationals must have their passports stamped or that only being married to a French national exempts you from stamping.

None of these are correct.

It’s also sometimes the case that people whose passports should be stamped – tourists, visitors and second-home owners who don’t have a visa – do not receive the stamp. For frequent visitors this can be a problem because it looks as though they have had a long stay in France, due to their exit not being recorded.

The system of stamping itself is also a bit haphazard with stamps scattered throughout the passport book in random order, so border guards sometimes make mistakes and miss an entry or exit stamp and therefore think that people have overstayed when they haven’t.

So how much of a problem actually is it if your passport is wrongly stamped?

It’s one thing to know the rules yourself, it’s quite another to have an argument with a border guard, in French, when a long queue is building behind you. Numerous Local readers have reported feeling that they had no choice but to accept a stamp when an implacable guard insisted upon it.

But is this really a problem?

One thing is clear – if you are a resident of France then you have the right to re-enter, and your proof of residency (visa or carte de séjour) takes precedence over any passport stamps. So it’s not a question of being barred from the country – it can, however, be inconvenient as it might lead to delays at the border while your passport record is queried.

Meanwhile people who did not receive correct exit stamps can be incorrectly told that they have over-stayed and even be liable for a fine. 

Will the new EES passport control system improve this?

Theoretically, the EU’s new Entry & Exit System – which does away with the manual stamping of passports – should get rid of these problems.

However, as we have seen, theory and what actually happens on the ground are two different things.

The EES system, due to come into effect later this year, brings in two main changes – it makes passport checks more secure by adding diometric data such as fingerprints and facial scans and it does away with manual stamping of passports and replaces it with scans which automatically calculate how long people have been in France.

You can read full details of how it works HERE. 

So that should eliminate the problems of unclear stamps, stamps being read wrongly or passports not getting the stamps they need.

Residents in France – carte de séjour and visa holders – are not required to complete EES checks and should have a separate system at ports, airports and railway terminals.

However, at present it’s pretty common for border guards to give incorrect information to non-EU residents who are resident in the EU – let’s hope that they are properly briefed before EES is deployed.

Have you had problems with passports being incorrectly stamped? Please share your experiences in the comments section below

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