Accessing non-urgent medical care: visitor to London

[rickyrickygrimes]

Hi

I’m visiting London with a school trip next week. If one of the students gets sick - not A&E urgent but sick enough to see a doctor - how do we go about that? Are there walk-in services? From what I read on here it seems very difficult to get to see a GP.

thanks!

So as I understand it, the students do have insurance: it is part of the ‘assurance scolaire’ that all students are required to have in France. We ask the parents to confirm that the assurance includes school trips and we have a note of the name / number of the provider / policy, but no helplines.

risk assessments do not seem to happen here. I agree that it’s mad.

You’re not going to be able to access nhs gps. If one of the children gets sick you will need to go private and insurance will pay. If no insurance then you’ll have to pay.

I can't believe a school is so badly run to have this little responsibility and organisation!

I see you're coming from France. I'm astounded.

I'd suggest an hour spent on the internet digging up the helpline number for each insurance provider then. Presumably there's not that many of them? It sounds fairly niche.

@DianaTaverner not niche at all, every pupil in France is obliged to have assurance scolaire so there are many many providers. Ours (for our own children) is provided by our bank, at no extra cost)

Oh that's annoying, much more work than if five players had the market sown up. I do think it would be good practice to get the numbers in advance though - ideally you'd go back to the parents and get them to do it, but at this stage it might actually be quicker to DIY than transfer the numbers from thirty separate emails.

DH just told me that when he did trips here in the past, it was the teacher who paid up front and was then reimbursed by the parents via their insurance this was for gp or dentist appointments .

Actually that’s another question… how would I access an emergency dentist?

TBF healthcare is organised very differently here. It’s normal to use private providers and the costs are much lower than in the UK, it’s normal to pay up front and be reimbursed. All GPs are pretty much private here, any only those on very low incomes don’t pay up front. I’ve been here for 17 years and never actually been in a public hospital despite having babies, dealing with fractures and having various ops. I’ve kind of forgotten how the nhs works.

And I confess I’ve got very used to not queuing for hours hence wondering about private clinics 🤷‍♀️.

Dentist you would ring around practices, a dental hospital or try 111 for the nearest one.

What about you? You need to check your own policy as, as you are effectively travelling on business (which in the UK mostly needs a seperate add on to you travel insurance), you might not be covered.

@rickyrickygrimes "DH just told me that when he did trips here in the past, it was the teacher who paid up front and was then reimbursed by the parents via their insurance this was for gp or dentist appointments"

omg, they expect teachers to be able to pay and not even provide an insurance policy number? The kids might well be covered on the parents insurance but you shouldn't have to deal with it that way!

I suggest, if any child falls “non-urgent sick”, you call their parents immediately re insurance.

Are you sure the academic policy covers non EU travel?

What about insurance for non health related issues? Like someone's phone gets dropped in the Thames/a suitcase gets lost etc? Does that come under the assurance scolaire?

For minor issues (eg someone gets conjunctivitis) you can go to a pharmacy.
Anything else you take your EHIC to the nearest a&e.

Good luck OP. I'd rather be ill in France