Medical Care in Venice

According to Italian legislature you must to be rendered emergency aid regardless of your having insurance policy on hand or not. In case of a heart seizure, water deprivation and so forth, there’s no necessity in rushing to the hotel, trying to find your insurance-papers. It is just enough to dial 118 and call ER.

As there is no car traffic in Venice, the ER will get on its way by a cutter and pick you up at the closest canal. You’ll have to talk over the place of meeting on the phone. It is always safer to ask a local inhabitant to make a call and explain to the medical personnel where you are situated. Venetians are very sympathetic, if things look black – don’t doubt to fall on the floor in a nearest shop and cry for help.

If there’s no one to apply to, get to the closest canal and find some orienting point – for example, a church or a bridge. Every bridge, even the smallest one, has a name, it starts with the word Ponte (“bridge” in Italian). It is enough to give the name of an embankment or a bridge for an ER cutter to find you.

If there is no need to call a cutter, but you want to urgently consult a doctor (some frightening cutaneous eruption, a bite of an unknown animal) you can always come to a casualty department yourself, without any appointment or insurance.

The city hospital - Ospedale Civile di Venezia – is situated in a Castello between the embankment Fondamenta Nove and the square Santi Giovanni e Paolo. Take vaporetto to the station Ospelade or from the square of Saint Giovanni and Paolo, step into the marble facade of the 15th century. Then follow the indicators Pronto Soccorso – the first aid.

Medicines

Most medications in Italy are sold only on prescription. Even for simplest pills a drug store will demand some flimsy signed by a doctor. If there is a possibility that you are going to need medicines in Venice – better take them from your home country.

Otherwise you’ll have to call your insurance company to find a doctor able to write out a prescription for you (and you’ll have to pay for the attendance).

You can buy any medicine in Italy having simply shown a doctor’s ID to a pharmacist. If you have a document of the kind with a photograph and an English translation, you get pills no problem.

Drug stores, as the most Venice’s institutions, work with a long lunch break, from 12:30 till 16:00, and are closed at 20:00. There is an address of a pharmacy on duty - farmacia di turno – hanging on the doors of every drug store.

Anyway, for you not to need any of these tips, try to drink as much as possible when it’s hot, and keep from eating at central tourist restaurants whatever the weather.