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27/04/2008, 17:25 NormanH Joined on 10/04/2008 Posts 179 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis  Ron Avery wrote: "NormanH has an extremely good point to make. Can you imagine if this happened in the UK, it would be national news and you could probably sue the lab senseless!" Another one who does not understand how the health service works in France, and/or the variations in whether you pay up front or not,  but at least he/she does not  live here.  I believe that you can get your prescriptions made up at the chemist free of charge in France if you have a carte vitale and a mutuelle, how marvellous, In the UK you have to pay £7.10 for each item, and if you don't have the money with you they won't give them to you,  what a disgrace. But of course I pay for the Mutuelle, which I wouldn't have to in the UK, and I also pay 8% of my pension for the côtisations toward the Carte Vitale, which a British pensioner wouldn't pay... And that is whether or not I am ill. I also believe that people on a low income don't pay prescription charges in the UK. So why is that amusing?    Report

27/04/2008, 17:39 Ron Avery Joined on 29/11/2004 Aveyron 12 Posts 3,202 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis Norman H said "But of course I pay for the Mutuelle, which I wouldn't have to in the UK, and I also pay 8% of my pension for the côtisations toward the Carte Vitale, which a British pensioner wouldn't pay."  But you are not a British pensioner are you?  If you were,  you would have an E121 and would not be in the CMU would you???  Why not post a sensible answer, people will appreciate it more    Report

27/04/2008, 17:54 Quillan Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 3,625 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis Perhaps I am being rather thick here but I don't understand what Norman is going on about. He must be under 65 else, as Ron said, he would have an E121 and would not be paying his 8%. He gets 100% cover for his treatment and blood test  because of his illness. All that seems to have happened is that he has not paid for the last test and therefore does not have any paperwork to enable him to claim any money back, normal proccedure by the way, and now they want their money he is having a whinge. If he had paid he would have got his form, sent it off to his local CPAM office and the money would be back in his bank account within 4 weeks max. So what is the problem, it's the French system and that's how it works. To be honest he should be grateful he only has to pay 8% to stay in the French health system when many of us who work for a living pay a far higher amount. To be honest (and I don't mean to be rude)  if Norman is comparing France to the UK and thinks the UK health system is better then I know what I would do if I were him, go back. Mind you our lab gives the results in 5 or 6 hours (blood test at 09:00, results can be collected at 14:00, every time without fail) , 100 times faster than anything I have personally experienced in the UK. http://www.chambresdhote.com    Report

27/04/2008, 18:12 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,804 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis  Q, I think you may find that Norman has been in France for many years and paid into the French system, what he is highlighting is a difference in mindset, and I suspect that is valid, as rightly or wrongly many Brits would be horrified to be presented with this situation. www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

27/04/2008, 18:34 sweet 17 Joined on 05/08/2006 charente maritime Posts 2,354 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis I lived in the UK for nigh on 40 years and I worked in the NHS for some 22 years.  But, I had lived in other parts of the world where you die if you can't pay. UK NHS is wonderful (not for some people who work within it, however) and you are just grateful that it is so.  However, if you choose to make your life elsewhere, why expect it to be the same as in the UK? You pays your money and you takes your choice.  Mind you, I am not sure how long the dear old NHS can keep going the way it has done.  When the day comes when we have to lay it to rest, I shall be the first to say RIP NHS.  You were wonderful whilst you lived!    Report

27/04/2008, 18:49 cassis Joined on 28/12/2007 Manhattan and Glasgow Posts 520 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis  Quillan wrote: Perhaps I am being rather thick here but I don't understand what Norman is going on about. If he had paid he would have got his form, sent it off to his local CPAM office and the money would be back in his bank account within 4 weeks max. So what is the problem, it's the French system and that's how it works. To be honest he should be grateful he only has to pay 8% to stay in the French health system when many of us who work for a living pay a far higher amount. Whatever the reason, you missed what Norman is going on about:   Norman wrote: I didn't choose this lab, the sample was sent by my Cancer specialist, and I have never had any direct contact with them so it is not as if I had contracted anything with them Froggy administrative c o c k-u p, nothing to do with Norman prima facie.  Or are people expected to pay for bills they don't know anything about?  If I'd received that letter I'd be pretty p i s s e d off by its snotty tone. Zoggy played guitar, jammin' good with Weird and Golly. Lyrics copyright Sausage Music 2008    Report

27/04/2008, 18:56 Sprogster Joined on 23/08/2004 Var & C.I. Posts 321 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis You don't delay something as serious as a biopsy or blood test for cancer, when the costs involved are minimal but a matter a few  days can make a critical difference, due to potential degradation of the sample and patient outcome. The danger in this type of situation is that the patient presumes everything is OK if they don't hear anything further, when in fact the test has not been processed and therefore the disease progresses beyond the curative stage, before they find out. Even in America, the land of private medicine, this sort of delay would be unlikely because the lab would be concerned about being sued for delaying diagnosis. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is wherever you are be it the UK or France you need to be pro-active in following up medical test results and don't assume no news is good news.    Report

27/04/2008, 19:42 NormanH Joined on 10/04/2008 Posts 179 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis  Russethouse wrote:  Q, I think you may find that Norman has been in France for many years and paid into the French system, what he is highlighting is a difference in mindset, and I suspect that is valid, as rightly or wrongly many Brits would be horrified to be presented with this situation. You have hit the nail on the head. My particular situation (compeletely misunderstood to a laughable degree by some unsympathetic posters such as Quillan) is that I have worked for so long in France that I have a French (not UK) pension which means that I will never have an E 121. (I would suggest that a few other people think about that because it will be the same for them later on ) My main point, which Russethouse has understood, is that our British instinct that if you have a major health problem you will be treated and for example a biopsy for a cancer would never be refused on financial grounds. This is NOT the case in France and you could find yourself refused treatment, if you can't pay , or if in my case there has been a glitch in the repayment mechanism in the past. So much for the so-called 'superior' health system in France..    Report

27/04/2008, 20:38 Dick Smith Joined on 23/08/2004 Surrey and Manche (Pays Mortainais) Posts 8,773 Re: Laboratory refuses to do the necessary analysis In fact, Norm, a lot of the Daily Wail diatribes against the 'free' treatment of nasty furriners comes about because of a mindset in the NHS that they will not turn a sick person away, and if told to do so, refuse. I forget the exact details, but there was such a  story a couple of weeks ago. Or, if anyone remembers, a poor woman who was sent back to Ghana, I believe, thus ending her treatment, which was then funded by public subscription from the UK - but sadly she died. A mindset which is one of the better things about the British as I see it, but no doubt others will disagree. Regards Dick Smith Nowhere is there warmth to be found Among those afraid of losing their ground    Report

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