I live in the USA and was in Paris for vacation. I developed tachycardia on the flight to Paris, which was completely new for me. It lasted over 3 hours and the flight attendants summoned a medical doctor who told me to be checked in Paris. Necker urgent care was the closest facility to where we were staying. Upon walking into their urgent care area, I felt I was walking into a hospital from the 1940's. It was hot, dark and filthy. It looked like the old asbestos tile floors had not been swept or scrubbed in months (yes, I am assuming they were abestos tiles based on my experience with a similar floor in my home). The windows were filthy as well. Paint on the wood trim around the windows was chipping off. Just beyond the waiting area stood an old fashioned hospital screen on wheels. I had not seen one of those since the 1960's. After waiting for an hour, I lost confidence in what I would encounter with medical care and left. I hope this was a really bad example of a medical facility in Paris. I was told later I should have gone to the "American hospital" which no one had told me about beforehand. My taste of "free medical care" in France was not a good one. I hope my impression of their healthcare system was incorrect for the rest of the country. I do want to point out that I was able to enjoy my time in Paris and loved so many things about it. I am grateful for that experience. I am back home now and receiving good care for the condition I developed enroute to France.
from Christopher McKee
March 21, 2023
I brought my daughter to this hospital early Sunday morning after she received food poisoning from a five star hotel. The staff was awful. They hire people who can barely speak French. Only the MDs were pros. After waiting for almost three hours I finally stopped a male MD and asked if he could see my daughter. Otherwise we would leave. He did and she was discharged shortly thereafter.
from Genya Takeda
February 07, 2023
Worst hospital experience ever. Really increased the risk of delivering our son, unnecessarily.
For weeks mid wives kept threatening there is a risk and we have to induce labor while all the data show that the infant and the mother are healthy. My wife was constantly stressed.
When we ask what risk is there, mid wife just says “death of a baby”. Who uses this word in a hospital when there is no real risk?
When my wife did start having a contraction, we went to the emergency service.
They made us wait for 7 hours stating they are short staffed.
There were actually quite a few staffs but they were checking their phones or chatting.
We were disheartened but no one showed an interest, no one came and ask if we were doing ok.
I repeat, it was an “emergency service”.
After the seventh hour I asked when can we be taken care of. They said “we can’t, not enough bed, not enough staffs today. We will have to put you in another hospital”.
Well what were they going to do if I hadn’t asked? Left us there unattended for another seven hours?
They slowly started looking for other hospitals. Many were also full but finally there was a nice one available just outside Paris.
Necker people said “ambulance will be here in 30 minutes”. Of course it took 90 minutes until we finally got to leave this horrible stupid hospital.
Thanks to the nice second hospital, the baby was born in 12 hours after we had moved there, safe and sound.
Maybe we just had a sequence of bad staffs at Necker. But for the entire time we commuted there and visited at the day of delivery, unfortunately we hardly met anyone there that cares or even shows a remote interest in patients.
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