Seeing a doctor, in practice

The health-cover guide gets you registered. This is what to do on the day you actually feel ill.

In one minute

Choose a family doctor as soon as you are registered with the health service. It is free and takes minutes online.
At night, at the weekend or on a holiday: 116117. A life at risk: 118.
The emergency department sees the most urgent first. If yours was not urgent, it costs €25.

Which door?

From the gentlest to the most urgent. Start at the top and go down only as far as you need.

The pharmacy farmacia
A cold, a headache, a small cut, a question about a medicine.
Look for the green cross. Pharmacists here are trained to advise, and many medicines need no prescription. At night one pharmacy in the area stays open by turns: tonight's list.
Your family doctor medico di base
Anything that can wait a day. Prescriptions, tests, a sick note, a referral to a specialist.
Free once you are registered with the health service. Choose one below: it takes minutes.
116117 continuità assistenziale
It cannot wait until your doctor is back: nights, weekends, holidays.
Free, 24 hours. An operator asks a few questions and sends you to the doctor on call.
The emergency department pronto soccorso
Serious and now: a bad injury, severe pain, a high fever that will not come down.
Padova's main one is at the university hospital, Via Giustiniani 2. You are seen by urgency, not by arrival. A visit that turns out not to be urgent costs €25.
118 emergenza sanitaria
A life is at risk: not breathing, chest pain, unconscious, heavy bleeding.
Call, do not drive. Help, now has what to say.

With a doctor of your own, a fever is a phone call, not an afternoon in a waiting room.

Register with the national health service
The fee, the documents and the office are in the health-cover guide.
Choose your doctor
Online with SPID or CIE, where you can list up to five doctors, or at a ULSS district office. The university also has a ULSS desk at Palazzo Bo, by appointment. Choosing your family doctor:Online, up to 5 names
Save the surgery's number and hours
Many family doctors see people by appointment. Ask how yours works on the first visit.

Short version: your doctor is free; specialists and tests cost a contribution called the ticket.

Free
Visits to your family doctor
Once you are registered. They write prescriptions for medicines and referrals for specialists and tests.
The ticket
Specialists and tests
A contribution you pay per visit or test, booked through the ULSS booking centre (CUP) with your doctor's referral.
€25
A non-urgent emergency visit
Charged in Veneto when a visit ends as a white code, plus the cost of any tests. Not charged for injuries such as fractures, wounds that need stitches or burns, or if you are admitted.

Everyone gets a colour at the door. The colour, not the time you arrived, decides who goes first.

A long wait usually means yours is not the most urgent case in the building, which is good news. The Region publishes how many people are waiting at each emergency department right now, by colour.

Homesick, anxious, not sleeping, exams on top of everything: the university has psychologists for exactly this, free for students.

Counselling in English or Spanish

The university's psychological service. Write to psychological.assistance.scup@unipd.it or call 049 8278493. It is not an emergency service.

Ho la febbre da due giorni.
oh lah FEH-breh dah DOO-eh JOR-nee
I have had a fever for two days.
Mi fa male qui.
mee fah MAH-leh kwee
It hurts here.
Sono allergico a…
SOH-noh al-LEHR-jee-koh ah…
I am allergic to … (allergica, if you are a woman)
Prendo questo farmaco.
PREN-doh KWEH-stoh FAR-mah-koh
I take this medicine.
Mi serve un certificato di malattia.
mee SEHR-veh oon cher-tee-fee-KAH-toh dee mah-laht-TEE-ah
I need a sick note.
Posso avere la ricetta?
POS-soh ah-VEH-reh lah ree-CHET-tah
Can I have the prescription?