Finding a doctor in France

Once you are in the system you will want to find a good local doctor who can be your médecin traitant or médecin généraliste (personal primary care physician).

It is quick and easy to designate a certain doctor and equally simple to change to another if you wish. Often they will be able to help you directly or guide you towards specialists or hospital treatment. However you may also want to do your own research into services as clinics and specialists are more accessible than in the US where the primary care physician has a greater ‘gatekeeper’ role.

Many doctors in France will speak some English, especially in cities, however there is no centralized official way to search for an English-speaking doctor.

While the popular website doctolib.fr allows you to narrow down a georaphical search by languages spoken, not all doctors make use of the site. There are a few additional services specifically aimed at the English-speaking community, however, such as the American Hospital of Paris or the Institut Hospitalier Franco-Britannique, also in Paris, which is run by the Hertford British Hospital Charity. Riviera Medical Services is a partnership of doctors who speak English and are based across the Alpes-Maritimes. The emergency home call-outs service SOS Médecins (3624) allows you to request an English-speaking doctor. Otherwise, you may need to ask around.

The Cpam site annuairesante.ameli.fr can help you find a doctor but you cannot search by languages spoken. It is a directory of doctors (professionnels de santé) and clinics/hospitals (établissements de soins).

If you choose un professionnel de santé you may then search by at least one of the following: name, specialism or medical act (or scroll down clickable lists) plus location. You may then also specify a sector (the main ones being sans dépassement, also called secteur 1, and honoraires libres) and specify either male or female doctors and ones who accept or do not accept reimbursement with a swipe of a health card (in theory most doctors now accept this).

Many French doctors traditionally practice alone, from offices that are often part of mixed residential and commercial blocks, although more and more are now grouping together with others alongside multidisciplinary ‘maisons de santé’ (community clinics with several medical services under one roof).

Doctors outside the hospitals are called libéral (meaning a professional working in private practice) and their services are sometimes, slightly confusingly, described as soins de ville (‘town care’).

In recent years there has been discussion of so-called ‘medical deserts’ – a lack of doctors in certain rural areas as cities attract more young professionals. The problem also concerns facilities like emergency units and maternity wards but especially revolves around the frontline services of primary care physicians and local specialists. Initiatives to address the issue include the use of ‘télémédecine’ (teleconsultation, remote monitoring), and the 2023 introduction of a law requiring all medical students to complete their fourth year in a medical desert.

An estimated 9% of the population live in poorly-served areas and the problem is made worse by an ageing population of doctors. In most towns, however, access is good.

Want to know more? We publish a 48-page guide to healthcare in France. See connexionfrance.com 

Useful vocabulary

Mutuelle or assurance complémentaire: A voluntary top-up health insurance policy

Tarif de convention: The basic fixed state tariff for a medical act of which the state refunds a percentage

Médecin traitant or médecin généraliste: Your personal primary care physician

Ticket modérateur: The part of treatment that is not refunded by the state

Remboursement: The refund paid by the state

La Sécu: Informal word for the state social security reimbursements system

La participation forfaitaire: A €1 charge paid on a visit to the doctor, prescriptions and other medical acts to fund medical research.

Puma: The system whereby long-term, legal residents of France may access French state healthcare, sometimes by paying in an annual cotisation (fee) dependent on personal circumstances.

Carte Vitale: A health card which carries your social security data. Used when visiting health workers and pharmacies

Hors parcours: Health treatment sought without referral from your médecin traitant. The opposite is treatment within the parcours de soins

Ordonnance: Prescription

Loi Madelin: A law that allows the self-employed to deduct the cost of ‘top-up’ mutuelles from tax

Dépassements (d’honoraires): A surcharge on top of the basic state tariffs; charged by ‘sector 2’ doctors

Reader question

I was treated for cancer 10 years ago but have since been well. What is the ‘right to be forgotten’ ?

The ‘droit à l’oubli’ relates to a requirement to declare any cancer treatment when applying for loans and insurance.

The typical case in which this right will be useful is in the medical questionnaires that are used before a person can have the obligatory borrower’s insurance when taking out a loan to buy a home.

Before the legal change in 2016, people who had recovered from cancer usually were either refused, or had to pay punitively high levels of surcharges for insurance and/or have certain conditions excluded from the insurance.

You do not have to mention the illness after a set period of time (10 years after the end of treatment for cancers diagnosed after the age of 21, or five years before the age of 21).