Thorny drug problem in France
I thought I’d try and attract your attention with a hard-hitting headline this week. The drug problem I’m referring to is widespread in France, expensive and dangerous. And completely legal.
My youngest daughter had a cold that wouldn’t go away so eventually Mrs B carted her off to the doctors. They emerged exhausted and hungry two hours later with a list of prescriptions that almost filled a carrier bag. Anti-this, anti-that, inhalants and sprays, we have them all.
Ignoring for the moment the challenges of getting a ten year old to swallow tablets the size of a 10c coin, this is normal practice in France. In the UK you are in luck if you can get an aspirin from your GP, whereas in France it is a matter of personal pride to the doctors that they prescribe as many pills and potions as possible. The average visit to the doctor results in four different medicaments being prescribed, apparently.
But of course all this comes expensive for the French health system who are trying to get the situation under control - without major success, judging by the happy queues at the pharmacist. For the French are never so happy as when they have a large stock of medications. The best prescription of all - the ‘big prize’ if you like - is for a week or two at a health spa, for purposes of detoxification, recuperation and general self improvement, sponsored by the state.
Anyway, while the rest of the family have been inside popping pills I have been taking advantage of the unseasonally warm weather (it changed dramatically just after my last entry) and getting on with things outside.
The border to our property is about 1 kilometre long, and a significant part of it is hedgerows of one type or another. Very attractive, packed with wildlife, and in urgent need of attention to stop the brambles taking over. So that’s what I have been doing. Brambles have a sneaky habit of slowly spreading, and if they are not controlled we will end up like a family of Sleeping Beauties, waiting for some courageous holidaymakers to arrive for a weeks holiday and save us from being completely engulfed.
It was Mrs B who pointed out the problem to me - a tree she had planted three years ago in open garden was now at least a metre behind the front-line of the brambles, and urgently needed saving. So I have cleared that particular part - motivated by the fact that is the part in our gite garden, and holidaymakers might not want to be pinned into the house by brambles. Only 950 metres to go and I’m sorted.
I also had a nice bike ride in the sun, with quite a respectable average speed although I say so myself. My training book tells me I should only cover about 250 kilometres a week during the winter rest period. Sadly I have been doing less than that a month since November.
Of course I attribute my good speed to my training and experience rather than the fact it is a new, lighter bike than I used all summer. As Lance Armstrong said, ‘Its Not About The Bike’. Although he was exaggerating a bit I think - he was riding a very expensive, very light, super-duper bicycle while he said it.
And of course he forgot to say ‘It Is About The Drugs’. Because that would have sold less books perhaps, although perhaps not. But we’ll leave the issue of drugs and the Tour de France for another day.
Absolutely right. I’ve tried several different doctor surgeries here (I live in the Jura, France) and they are all the same. Especially for anti-biotics which are perscribed for everything and every little injury. The patients seem to expect it, while the doctors seem to be worried that they have to perscribe everything to prevent possible lawsuits in case things go bad.
You’ve probably seen the French goverment commercials trying to pursuade people that antibiotics are not automatically perscribed. Even the French president was on TV last year discussing this, noting that perscription rates are several times higher here than in Germany.
What people seem to forget is that:
- Most of this medication is not necessary
- Over-perscribing makes drugs less effective than when necessary
- It can actually make you ill (my wife is now refusing antibiotics as she has developed a reaction to them)
So, glad to hear another voice of reason.
The other problem of course is the sheer waste of money of all this prescribing and the overpricing of the various pills and potions.
Our little guys had a cough this week so off we went to the doctor. Total cost for two bottles of cough medicine was 2 x €24 for the visit itself, plus around €50 for the two bottles of medicine (if you exclude the rebate from the health insurance which, of course is paid by someone). So, 100€ for two bottles of medicine. In the UK the same stuff is available over the counter in the chemists for the equivalent of around 8€.
I live in Morzine in Haute Savoie and working as an estate agent could not at first believe my colleagues’ propensity to rush off to the doctor at the first sign of a sniffle. And have you ever noticed the extensive medical vocabulary of the average French person? I also couldn’t believe the proportions of the average household medicine cabinet, and I’ve seen a few, but after perhaps 3 visits to the doctor each by me and my boyfriend over the space of 3 years we are starting to have quite a sizeable collection ourselves. I was even prescribed antibiotics for a bacterial infection with the doctor’s full admission that really they wouldn’t do anything but, and I quote “sometimes it’s quite nice to take some antibiotics and give the immune system a bit of a rest anyway”!!! Once I was prescribed 5 medications all to be taken in conjunction with one another and so I started at work - it was all I could do to get home and I certainly shouldn’t have been driving. I am surprised by the French lack of reliance on alternative medicines or therapies despite the fact that they love their kiné and ostéo and often take their babies from a very young age. I remember turning up for work one day with just the beginnings of a sore throat that had come on that morning and being told off for not having been to the doctor yet! (they ridiculed me when I said I would wait to see for at least several days as it might go by itself. As if!) It’s all quite a paradoxical mix of hypochondriachal and stoical. (I find it comical) Nobody here believes in resting and letting the body naturally heal, they soldier on and you’re just not permitted a kiss and you have to hope for the best that you don’t catch their airborne bugs. A friend even recently asked me to look after her chickenpox-ridden child so that she and her husband would not have to take time off work!
And ever tried getting vaccinations to go abroad? It cost us 350€ for the two of us to have our jabs to go to Indonesia last year!
Your website is a gem and it is so interesting to read the comments and the moans that we have been accumulating during 3 years of living, renovating, being employed and running a business in France. Nobody said it was easy but… nobody tells you (or would we listen?) how difficult so many things are to do in France. Thanks for making me feel normal!!! I am indulging myself here…
Hmm, I sense a pattern emerging here…I’m glad everyone has similar experiences to ourselves. I love the story about the doctor prescribing antibiotics, Carrie, sadly completely believable.
I have to admit I haven’t been to the doctors once in five years in France, except accompanying someone else, but luckily (?) my wife and children keep me supplied with anecdotes. Long may it stay that way.
Meanwhile, I hope I don’t come across as a grumpy old git, always moaning about this that and the other. I do sometimes exagerate a teensy-tiny bit for the sake of making the blog more lively, and really I’m enjoying myself! But yes, there are surely things I would change if I were the next president…