Finding a doctor who speaks English
I HAVE heard that an English GP has started a practice in my area. Can you advise me where I should look as I cannot find any details? A.T.
Doctors are not allowed to advertise (eg. by taking out a press advert) and there is no official way to search (on the internet or otherwise) for a doctor who speaks English or is of a certain nationality.
The Code de la Santé details the advertising ban and also says doctors should not describe themselves in an excessively self-promoting way on their websites.
However just stating that they are English, for example, or speak English, would just be ‘information’, a spokeswoman for the Ordre National des Médecins told Connexion.
An internet search for “English-speaking doctors” throws up some incomplete unofficial lists.
There are also some services in France specifically aimed at English-speakers, such as the American Hospital of Paris, which has hundreds of doctors on its books, many of whom see people as outpatients (see “Find a physician” at american-hospital.org) or the Institut Hospitalier Franco-Britannique (www.ihfb.org) also in Paris, which is run by the Hertford British Hospital Charity.
Riviera Medical Services (www.rivieramedical.com) is a partnership of doctors who all speak English and are based across the Alpes-Maritimes.
The emergency home call-outs service SOS Médecins (3624) also says you may ask for an English-speaking doctor.
