Loobs39, sorry I’ve only just read your post of Sunday, about the feeling of abandonment on leaving hospital. I have a friend who had the same op in UK and got the same feeling, sent home with the injections materials without any instructions, (to do them herself) and she didn’t feel up to it anyway. Here I went in the night before the op (their choice) and then stayed 4 nights after (my choice) I wanted to see the Kine (physio) on the Monday morning before leaving, and get the pain control right.
very good care (no practical advice about the next few weeks though).
once out I had a nurse visit every day to do injections, dressings and the staple removal. still coming as 3 more injections to do. Fortunately I found an English speaking male nurse who is lovely. Also visit the Kine each week. Had an ordnance (prescription) for that.
If my husband wasn’t here to help me then I think a convalescent home would have been arranged. So, all in all, pretty good, although this is a time when my poor french makes it hard. Some hospital nurses have a little English, but not a lot (Why should they) and hearing your own language when your feeling low would be comforting.
We pay to a ‘mutuelle’ every month, so that is what covers the hospital costs.
other than that the only payments have been contributions towards pre op appointments which you have to arrange yourself, quite a challenge when your french is limited! (no nanny state here!) Special x rays, Doppler scans, cardiologist, dentist, blood and urine tests.
sorry, I’ve gone on a bit, but it helps to explain why people say the french health system is one of the best in the world. Of course you do contribute to it, and if a similar system could be arranged in the UK it would help a lot, but as the principle of the ‘free’ NHS is deeply entrenched, I don’t think it will happen.
It‘s also true that France has the same difficulty with a shortage of GPs, and the system is getting overloaded generally. Our home visit nurse works very long hours.