SIR — I would like to share with your readers my recent experience of doctors and hospital treatment in Paris and how they compare with our local doctors and hospital in Taunton.
My husband and I were in Paris for a few days to celebrate my 65th birthday. On the second day my husband was so ill that in the middle of the night the hotel reception had to call a doctor.
On arrival he first ensured that I was able to pay his 100 euro fee in cash, then examined my husband, diagnosed a virus or possibly food poisoning, gave him an injection, handed me a prescription and left.
This treatment did not solve matters and by the next evening my husband was still in considerable pain.
Again in the early hours reception had to call out a doctor (his fee was 120 euros in cash – inflation no doubt) who suggested that my husband to be taken by ambulance to the American Hospital on the outskirts of Paris. They required 167 euros 'up front'.
Despite holding our credit card details, the hotel refused to pay the ambulance but kindly directed me to a cash machine (out of order). Meanwhile, my husband lay on a stretcher in the ambulance and could only wait.
When we finally arrived at the American Hospital the duty doctor told us that there were no free beds (our doctor had clearly not checked bed availability) and we were redirected to another, this time French, hospital, where my husband was finally admitted - this time without payment as we had our EEC health cards with us.
Our treatment by this hospital was medically satisfactory, but I was astonished to find that neither of the two doctors involved spoke a word of English (in Paris, an international city full of foreign tourists). Our school French was not good enough to understand medical terms.
Worse still was the attitude of the doctors involved. When I asked if I could stay with my husband, particularly to help with translation/understanding, the first doctor replied with a curt "non" and slammed the door in my face. I was left in the waiting room on my own.
Ninety minutes later, around 4am, no staff member was to be seen and reception was in semi-darkness.
In panic I opened doors at random to find in one room about ten staff at a table, eating and chatting happily, and in another room nearby my husband on an empty drip and still in pain. I shouted for help and the drip was changed.
Eventually a second doctor, accompanied by a junior nurse carrying x-rays, appeared. This doctor gave his diagnosis in French, but when the nurse attempted to provide some rudimentary translation she was shooed out.
I dragged her back in, a correct diagnosis was made, and appropriate treatment applied.
When asked whether it was safe for us to fly back to the UK that day as we were scheduled to do, I received the famous gallic shrug – it was clearly up to us to decide.
It is said that the French medical service is excellent. This may well be so but as foreigners we didn't seem to count for much.
On returning to our hotel my husband's pains soon recurred. With the use of high doses of painkillers we survived the flight back to Bristol, but had to request a wheelchair for the transfer from aircraft to terminal, where a good friend met us and drove us straight to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton.
What a difference - efficient, thorough, quick and friendly treatment.
My husband was kept in overnight, and discharged without pain the next day.
As the pain came back in the afternoon I telephoned our local surgery, who arranged an out-of-hours doctor visit (it was a weekend).
This doctor recommended minor changes to medication, and we received a follow-up phone call the next day. On Monday we saw our own GP and my husband is now without pain and on the mend.
We are both full of praise for the treatment my husband received in Musgrove and from the doctors involved in his care thereafter.
Paris? Never again!
Clea Cook,
Trendle Lane,
Bicknoller.