Seeing a doctor: how clinics work

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When you are unwell, the usual first stop is a neighbourhood clinic rather than a hospital. Clinics are organised by speciality — internal medicine, paediatrics, ear nose and throat — so you choose the one closest to your symptoms. Bring your health insurance card to every appointment. If you are enrolled, you pay only a portion of the cost at the counter. Without the card you will be asked to pay the full amount and reclaim the difference later. Your residence card, and a medication record book if you have one, make the visit smoother. Going straight to a large hospital without a referral letter adds a supplementary charge on top of the ordinary fee. Seeing a clinic first, and asking for a referral if one is needed, is usually both cheaper and faster. Medication is often dispensed not at the clinic but at a nearby pharmacy, in which case you take your prescription there. Prescriptions expire, so go the same day or the next working day. Look up your municipality's after-hours medical advice line and holiday clinic while you are well, and keep the numbers somewhere you can find them. It is not a thing you want to be researching at midnight.