If you are a new arrival in Switzerland, or even if you’ve been living here for a while but never needed medical care, this is what you should expect when making an appointment to see a doctor.
First, the good news…
According to a survey by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on how long patients in various countries typically wait for an appointment with a specialist, the share of people in Switzerland waiting a month or more is 23 percent, compared to 36 percent in France, 52 percent in Sweden, and 61 percent in Norway.
OECD statistics also show that Switzerland has among the shortest waits for medical tests and procedures.
So how long is the wait for an appointment (for non-emergency situations)?
There is no uniform answer to this question, because several variables are at play.
The main one is, what kind of heath insurance you have – just the obligatory KVG/LaMal or also a complimentary/private one – and what kind of doctor you need to see.
If you need to make an appointment with your GP, wait times could vary from a couple of days to a week or more, regardless of the insurance type. How soon you can see your GP will depend on what ails you – that is, the degree of urgency – and how busy the doctor is.
The same is true if you need to consult a specialist doctor at a hospital outpatient clinic – the so called Poliklinik in German and policlinique in French.
The wait depends on how busy a particular facility is.
Generally though, it is likely to be longest at university hospitals – as long as several weeks – than at smaller, district ones.
In either case, however, you need to be patient.
READ ALSO: What you should know about finding a doctor in Switzerland
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What about specialist doctors?
Here the type of health insurance you have makes a huge difference.
The reason is that many specialists have their own private practices and, if they are also surgeons, operate mostly in private clinics.
Many only accept patients who have a private or semi-private insurance, for whom the wait – for both the consultation and surgery – is minimal.
You may think that people with private insurance have an unfair advantage – at least in terms of waiting times – over those who don’t, and you’d be right.
But this system is based on the premise that those who spend more money (and private insurance is very expensive), get the perks that those who only take out the obligatory coverage do not.
READ ALSO: Is the high cost of Swiss private health insurance worth it?
In the end, however, the difference between private vs ‘regular’ insurance lies only in the wait times, the choice of specialists, and ‘bells and whistles’ such as a private room,.
The quality of care, however, as well as any follow-up treatments, are the same.
In other words, nobody in Switzerland will be penalised, in terms of medical care, just because they don’t have a complimentary insurance.