What can I do in case of a medical emergency?

If you need medical help, you can turn to any doctor in your town. In emergencies, you should contact a hospital.

Before visiting a doctor, however, you should consider several things:
• To be able to be treated by a doctor, you need a certificate for treatment of their foreigner’s authority or the social services.
• Treatments from a specialist, such as an ophthalmologist, dentist or dermatologist must be proposed by the GP by a remittance advice and be approved by the authority
• In an emergency, you may also go to the doctor without treatment certificate. However, you must apply for the treatment certificate immediately afterwards and submit to the doctor.
• Without a doctors notice you must pay for the treatment by yourself, which can be very expensive.

After 15 months of stay or if you have a regular work with a social insurance, you will receive a health insurance card. You will need that in order to go to the doctor without treatment certificate. This health insurance card has to be presented when visiting a doctor. It stores important information about you as well as a photo for recognition. The biggest difficulty for doctor visits or in hospitals may represent the language. Doctors usually speak English or German and only very rarely your language. Ask in advance what languages the doctor speaks and bring optionally a translator with you.

The doctor might give you some documents about your treatment and what have to be done for your recovery. You can also get handed transfers to another specialist. Please do not throw away the documents, but keep them in a safe place. If you have to take strong medication it usually has to be prescribed by the doctor. With that recipe you can pick up the medication at a pharmacy. The doctor or pharmacist will tell you how you have to take the medication. Please ask for further instructions, if you are unsure.