Friday night, your family member suddenly has fever and the temperature has sky-recketed. Standard situation, right? What to do and where to run if you are just moved in your new villa in Spain? Of course, for such cases you should have a first aid kit with a minimum supply of drugs like Ibuprofen or Paracetamol. But what if you still want to get help from a real doctor?
Normally, the following scheme works here:
- if the temperature rises or you are in pain, you need to take some Paracetamol pills and wait until it gets better;
- if you do not feel any better, you need to get yourself to the clinic for your appointment at doctor’s.
Of course, many of us just catch viruses. That’s why there is nothing wrong with an advice to fight the fever and drink more water. It is merely justified and in most of the cases will be just enough to get on your feet. However, getting to a specialist can be somewhat of a challenge. If you suspect that you might suffer from, for example, bronchitis or pneumonia, then you can wait for a visit for 2-3 months, as locals say.
In order to make your relocation to Spain as smooth as possible in terms of medical support, we have prepared a few practical tips:
- Hospital in your city. When choosing a new place of residence, pay attention to the availability of hospitals, otherwise there is a chance that if something happens, you will have to drive more than a dozen kilometers to get qualified assistance. For example, if you settle down in Torrevieja, a private hospital Quiron and clinic Imed will be located right in the city. And if you choose to have a property in Calpe or Altea Hills, most likely, you will have to go approximately 40 km to the hospital of the city of Denia to get help.
- Get yourself a health insurance. If you work in Spain, make mandatory insurance contributions. In this case, you will have an access to private medicine, which will allow you to get faster appointments with doctors, especially without a referral from a therapist. The cost of insurance varies, but on average you can count on the amount of 35-50 EUR per month per person. Many companies offer family insurance policies as well. There are also such luxury insurance offers, which cover surgery and dental services. In addition, when you choose insurance, please pay attention which hospitals a particular insurance company cooperates with. Otherwise, it may be the case that the hospital, which is located next to your villa, doesn’t work with your insurance company or your insurance covers only basic examinations. It would be a pity, right?
- Communication with your fellows. If you do not mind communicating with compatriots, you can look for communities that certainly use mobile technology and communicate in endless chats literally about everything. This can be of a great help, especially at first, when the level of anxiety can go off scale and it might be incredibly difficult to cope even with simple tasks.
- Make sure you speak English. If you don't speak Spanish, you will definitely have a hard time explaining yourself to the medical staff, but usually the doctors speak English well and the hospital staff is most likely to have an English-speaking interpreter. This will help you find a common language and not get lost in the nervous atmosphere of the hospital.
