Getting wound dressed on France holiday

[Fredabert]

Had a lesion removed from my ear and need dressing chafed by medics twice a week
my travel insurance won’t cover
I have a EHIC card
could I get it done at a Gp equivalent on the which card ?

I would hope you have a GHIC card rather than an EHIC, since the EHICs ran out a while back (unless you are an EU citizen living in the UK), but anyway, yes, you can go to a French GP and they will do the necessary, as EHIC/GHIC covers both emergency and ongoing care.

However, with the French system you may have to pay up-front and then claim back. The deal with EHIC/GHIC is not that you get free treatment, it's that you get the same deal as local people. The standard price of a GP visit in France is €30, which the French state system reimburses at 70% (€21) - most French people have top-up insurance to cover €7 of the remaining €9 (it's illegal to reimburse the last €2, to discourage people from visiting 10 GPs until one caves in and gives them antibiotics for a cold). I'm not sure how you go about getting reimbursed but the NHS website probably has it, and if not look up NHS Overseas Healthcare Services and call them.

I think the first place I would go in your case is a pharmacy. They might just be able to do the dressing there, and if not they will point you to a nearby doctor or clinic. In most towns there are no waiting lists, but you may have to sit in a waiting room for a couple of hours.

If you need help with communicating then I thoroughly recommend the app/website called DeepL. It is vastly better than Google Translate and it's free for up to about 700 words at a time.

Hi, my son needed stitches whilst we were on holiday in France last year and had them done at a GP surgery. He had a GHIC card but had to pay by card and then claim back when we got home. Downloaded a form at https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/claim-refund-treatment-costs- make sure you keep all your receipts as you need to send them off with the form. It did take a long time though.

I had a visitor from the UK in the same situation. I made an appointment with the nurse at our medical centre and she changed the dressing daily for a very small fee.

Ask your treatment room nurse at the GP and they might be able to give you stock to do it yourself or have your relative do it!

Can't you do it yourself?

A lot of French towns have walk in health centres - centres d' urgences - which I assume would be able to do this for you. You would probably have to pay though.

Also as others have said pretty much every town in France is blessed with a lot of pharmacies and the staff are usally very helpful with minor ailments. Once in a small French seaside town a very helpful pharmacist dressed my big toe for a small fee after I fell and scraped the top off and cracked the nail badly.

It is open wound after a lesion surgery and has to be checked for infection

This!
Dressing can be changed by a nurse. It will be cheaper than a doctor’s visit. In France you usually pay upfront and then claim back.