There is a gap in most pre-departure advice. Workers are told to arrange health insurance before they travel, and many do. Then they arrive, and nobody has explained what to do when they wake up at two in the morning with a fever and do not know where to go.
Insurance is the paperwork. Getting care is the skill. They are not the same thing, and this guide is about the second one.
Sort three things in your first week
Do this while you are well. Doing it while you are ill, in a language you do not speak, is much harder.
Find out where you go for routine care. Ask your employer or the people you live with which clinic or doctor people use. Not the hospital. The ordinary place you go for an ordinary problem. Write the address down, or save it on your phone.
Find out where you go for an emergency. In most of Europe the emergency number is 112 and it works across the whole continent, including from a mobile that is not on a local contract. Save it. It costs nothing to save and it is the one number you may need in a hurry.
Know how your cover works before you need it. Read the document rather than filing it. Specifically you need to know: do you pay and claim it back, or does the provider pay directly; is there a phone number you must call before treatment; is there a list of approved clinics; and what happens outside working hours. Our guide to travel and health insurance for overseas workers (https://www.greenoutdoors.in/blog/travel-and-health-insurance-for-overseas-workers-what-you-actually-need) sets out what to check, and your pre-departure medical examination (https://www.greenoutdoors.in/blog/preparing-for-your-pre-departure-medical-examination-a-worker-s-guide) is where you should raise anything ongoing or pre-existing.
What to carry with you at all times
- Your insurance document or card. A photograph on your phone is not always accepted. Carry the physical one.
- Your passport or residence document, or a copy. Many clinics will ask for identification.
- A list of your medication, with the generic names. Brand names differ between countries and a doctor may not recognise the one you use at home.
- An emergency contact.
- The address and phone number of the clinic you identified in your first week.
None of this takes up much space. All of it saves time when you are unwell.
Pharmacies first, for the small things
In most of Europe the pharmacy is the first stop for minor problems, and pharmacists are trained to advise. Colds, minor infections, sprains, stomach upsets and skin problems can usually be handled there, and it is faster and cheaper than a clinic.
Pharmacies are identifiable by a green cross in most countries. Some are open late, and in larger towns there is usually one open through the night. Ask which one is, before you need it.
If the pharmacist tells you to see a doctor, see a doctor.
When to go to a clinic, and when to call an ambulance
See a doctor, reasonably promptly, if you have: a fever that does not settle, a wound that is not healing or is becoming red and hot, persistent vomiting or diarrhoea, a chest infection or difficulty breathing, a rash that spreads, or anything that has been going on for more than a few days.
Call for an emergency ambulance if there is: chest pain, difficulty breathing at rest, sudden weakness or numbness on one side, loss of consciousness, severe bleeding, a serious accident, confusion, or a high fever with a stiff neck.
Do not talk yourself out of calling for help because of the cost, the language, or because you are not sure. That decision is not yours to make at three in the morning while unwell. Call, and let the system decide.
The language problem, and how to get through it
This is the thing workers worry about most, and it is genuinely manageable.
Use a translation app. Type the symptom rather than trying to pronounce it. It works well and it is normal practice.
Take someone with you if you can. A colleague who speaks more of the language than you do will save a great deal of confusion. This is worth doing even for small things.
Write down three things before you go: what is wrong, how long it has been going on, and what medication you already take. Hand it over. A written note travels better than a spoken sentence.
Describe symptoms concretely. Not "I feel bad" but "pain here, since Tuesday, worse at night, and I have a temperature." Concrete descriptions translate better in both senses.
You are entitled to interpretation in some countries and not in others. We are not going to state which, because it varies and the rules change. Ask your employer or the clinic what is available.
Paying for it
How you pay depends entirely on your cover and on the country, and we are not going to quote a cost for a consultation or a treatment. A figure would be wrong for at least one country and useless in the rest, and a stale number about money is worse than no number.
What you should do is know in advance which of these your cover uses, because it changes what you do at the desk:
- You pay, then claim it back from the insurer.
- The insurer pays the clinic directly.
- There is a co-payment you settle yourself and the rest is covered.
Do not leave the clinic without the receipt and the paperwork, whatever the arrangement. A claim without documents is not a claim.
Keeping well is easier than getting treated
The most useful medical advice for a placement is boring and it works.
Sleep enough, especially on shift work. Eat properly, which is covered in our guide to staying well on a placement. Drink enough water, which matters more than people expect in both hot and cold climates. Get your teeth checked before you leave, because a dental problem abroad is expensive in time and money. Take enough of any regular medication for the whole placement, plus a margin, and carry it in your hand luggage with the prescription.
And if something is wrong, say so early. Workers lose far more time to a problem they ignored for two weeks than to one they reported on the first day.
The limits of what we will tell you
Which treatments are covered, whether a referral is needed, what an employer must provide, and how a national health system treats a foreign worker are all set by the country you are in and by your own insurance terms. We are not going to state a rule or a figure for any of it, because a number quoted for the wrong country is worse than no number at all.
The three questions worth asking before you travel are: who do I call, where do I go, and who pays. If your placement cannot answer those before you leave, ask again until it does. A legitimate employer will have the answers.
If you have a question about health cover, documentation or a placement you are considering, contact us on +91 77789 78988 or at [email protected]. Our website is www.greenoutdoors.in.
Visas are decided by the embassy. No outcomes are guaranteed.