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American Hospital of Paris (6)
Medical practice in France (1)
The French medical system is a kind of socialized medicine just
like Japan. Social Security covers almost all people in France. However,
some physicians do a partially liberal practice outside the Social Security,
system which is not legal in Japan. American Hospital of Paris is an
exception in that most of the physicians have a partially liberal practice.
In 2000 the World Health Organization published a ranking of the quality
of medical care among countries in the world. Both France and Japan
were ranked at the top level because of the equality of the medical
care for the people. However, patients’satisfaction differs in the two
nations. French people are by and large satisfied with the system, but
Japanese are not.
How did the Japanese residents appreciate the French public hospitals?
I asked my patients about their impressions and frankly speaking, the
reputation of medical care in France was thought of as bad. First of
all, most patients pointed out the language problem and the cold attitude
of the receptionists. As I wrote previously regarding obtaining carte
de sejuour, French public servants have a notorious reputation as being
unfriendly even towards their own people. When it comes to foreigners,
the service is definitely much worse. In this regard, I think personally
that the US, another multi-national country, is more foreigner friendly.
Let me introduce you the conditions of French doctors in private practice. Most of the physicians in private practice in Paris have their offices in an apartment building. When you visit them, you have to search for their name plates very carefully. They are usually very small. The offices are also small with minimal equipment. Usually there are no X-ray machines. What do the patients do for diagnostic tests? They receive a prescription for the tests and go to the diagnostic center just like going to the pharmacy to get medicine with prescription. It is very inconvenient for Japanese who are used to Japanese medical offices where everything is available. This is why my office at AHP became popular. In AHP any diagnostic tests could be done at one place.
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E-mail:kidot@momo.so-net.ne.jp