19th February 2017

As I and the NHS approach our 70th birthday, we both need a full body scan! No more standing on the scales myopically ignoring the obvious. The problem is nostalgia. No-one likes change, even when it's so obvious. Using the French health system shows up strikingly all that is wrong with the UK and the US systems. Here's a plan: 1. UK: raise your annual GDP from the current 9.1% to at least the French 11.5%. 2. US: introduce a national, fair system based on the French model. 3. Each government to pay 70% of all health costs; individuals 30% - the latter paid for via Government-approved, cheap health insurance. 4. Built-in safeguards for free access to the low-paid and the terminally ill. 5. Introduce French-style carte vitales, with built-in health history microchips to use at all pharmacies/hospitals/surgeries for instant, free access to care.  Why? UK: this will cut at a stroke the excessive queues for urgent care, no longer 'not enough beds', whilst providing free taxis from home to hospital for those with long-duration conditions. No need for so many highly-paid administrators as the system won't need them. US: no longer can you say you can't afford to go to the doctor.  Nostalgia? Forget it. It's a thing of the past.

12th June 2016

A week of clashes.  Yesterday England v Russia, both on and off the pitch, in Marseilles. Ongoing French strikes against proposed modernisation of a French employment law that, for decades, has allowed some to retire at 50, with job security for life with generous pensions. And in the UK, referendum brinkmanship and recent strikes continue to focus on bringing more money to the NHS.  The link here is 'modernisation'.  People mistrust it, clinging to the past they know. A few days ago we experienced yet again the French health system at its best. It's so obvious if only the NHS were brave enough: 1.  issue a photo id health card to all, based on entitlement; 2. a 70:30 payment system, the 30% topped up by government for the low paid/chronically sick; 3. card-readers in all G.P./clinics/hospitals/pharmacies which automatically read and process individuals' health cards and patient history; 4. after treatment, the patient automatically issued with an unsealed consultant report plus X-rays where applicable to be directed to the GP. No more clashes. Be brave France and the UK: embrace change and bring employment and health into the 21st century.

16 November 2014

In a few weeks Him indoors will start a daily course of treatment for 7 weeks at the Claude-Bernard Clinic in Albi. In the wake of the latest NHS scandal at Colchester Hospital, where patients were found strapped to beds and given sedatives without permission, it'll give us chance, once again, to compare the French health system with the English.  And it is only the system. In my experience doctors in both countries are equally as good, but the English ones are hampered by an NHS system that has broken down due to sheer weight of numbers.  A recent survey showed that French patients are seen in A & E within 2 hours, half the 'target time' of the NHS.  Most are seen in less than one hour, those with traumatic conditions like poisoning being seen immediately. Yes, in France the patient is king: everything is patient-orientated. At a Limoges Hospital, staff listened and introduced different colour coding for staff uniforms. And what does Him indoors think? He says he'd better not swallow a 5-euro note at the clinic because then they'd have to keep him in for observation to see if there was any change...

7th March 2010

Lots of UK election sound-bites afoot about much-needed changes, particularly in education and health. Good! Generations of UK schoolchildren have been short-changed. The brain must be trained to think independently before introducing PCs, calculators and more advanced education. Bevan's original postwar NHS ideal has collapsed due to too-many people chasing ever-increasing health treatments and cost-driven drugs. Result: blow-out.
French schoolchildren have always followed a traditional regime, primary children attending 6h p.d., 4 days p.w.
French healthcare is rightly lauded as the best health system in the world, but I doubt if the UK would ever accept the switch from free care to one based on regulated payments and refunds. Besides, illegal immigrants wouldn't like the automatic id checks via the health cards! A new French innovation is a website like http://www.icalin.sante.gouv.fr/ where results on 5 key indicators, superbugs, illness prevention, post-operative infections, antibiotic use, post-operative deaths, can be checked hospital by hospital.
And my experience? In our French village I see that even primary children greet me politely in English in the street, and that hospital patients return home praising their treatment. Enough said. And Him indoors: he tells the doctor he has a low pain threshhold, so the doctor says the next procedure will hurt a bit....here's the bill!

24th May 2009

Ever since I broke my arm last year and experienced the French health care system - literally at first hand - I've been telling everybody about the excellent French system. It's also been interesting to hear our Canadian friends say how much better French health care is to the Canadian one, where people still have to sit in long queues waiting in casualty units.
However, Sarkozy wants to change it all. French doctors are in uproar over a proposed reform they say will sacrifice the quality of medical treatment in order to save money. Where have I heard all this before? France’s generous health care system is undergoing a serious shake-up that has set doctors on edge for the last few months. But, in the meantime, local hospitals like La Chartreuse in nearby Villefranche de Rouergue continue to welcome everybody, comme d'habitude: carte-vitale holders, tourists and even inmates held by the police, offering all inpatients a choice of wine with their meals. Just like back home - I don't think.
French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot and the Senate met on 12 May to push through a reform to balance the books in French hospitals and boost the powers of the hospital directors. Haven't they heard of the disastrous mistakes the UK has made over the last fifty years or so?
Please, Mr. Sarkozy: don't follow the terrible litany of errors of the NHS. What's that old adage? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!