italylover2004

I am leaving for a two week trip (mostly to Florence and Rome) next week. Although I have had no complications in my pregnancy so far, I'd like to be able to have a doctor or hospital in mind in case of an emergency in Florence... preferably one with english speaking doctors.
I am planning to take all of my medications with me and don't anticipate any problems. It is better to be prepared though so any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Grinisa

The Careggi hospital in Florence is a leading teaching hospital and English is spoken by many of the staff and doctors.

shellio

If you belong to a provider organization such as Blue Shield, check their online listings of approved international providers. I was surprised to find they had them in virtually every country in the world.

MomDDTravel

Italylover - while it is not a doctor or hospital - we had to seek medical attention for our then 10 year old in Florence. I had my trusted guide book and went on the outskirts of town to the place it listed, only to find the office closed. I did not want to take her to the Dr. I wandered into the pharmacy right by the Domo and they were FANTASTIC - within a half hour an MD came up on his vespa with his black bag and examined my dd in the back of the store. We got several meds and she was greatly improved within 48 hours. She had a double ear infection and flying home would have been horrible if we had not sought treatment then. (We were leaving in about 6 days).

So, if you run into an issue - I can recommend going into the Pharmacy and having them direct you from my own personal experience.

The cost of the visit I did send off to my insurance and was shocked to receive a portion of it back!

Best of luck and have a fabulous in one of my favorite cities in the world.

zeppole

Do you have travel insureance?

Just checking.

For visitors to Italy who suffer an emergency, medical care is free. However you are well advised to see if you can nail down the name of an English-speaking doctor, and which hospital you would prefer.

There are some long-time residents of Firenze who post on the Slow Travel website. I'm sure they'd be happy to help.

If you have an American Express card, I believe they offer travelers in foreign countries access to translators who will help you communicate with doctors, for free. Likewise, so will travel insurance.

If you don't have travel insurance, you can still purchase it BEFORE you leave from Access America.

MomDDTravel

We paid for our medical needs and then submitted the costs to our insurance. I am not sure that I needed "medical" travel insurance. When I have looked into it for travel to Europe it did not seem like I really needed it.

zeppole

Regular American medical insurance company will not pay the costs of money spent to extend a hotel stay, to change a flight, to take emergency transportation to a hospital in another town or medical evacuation. Nor will it pay for the cost of non-refundale hotel deposits and other such expenses if your trip plans go straight out the window because of a medical emergency for you or your traveling companions.

Travel insurance will also pay the cost of you flying home for a medical emergency of a family member stateside. That is to say, if your aged parents become ill while you are at an agriturismo in Sicily, travel insurance will pay to get you back to your parents or kids, whatever.

I once became ill in a small town in Japan. Travel insurance paid for not only my immediate hospital expenses, but for air transportation back to Tokyo, and then two nights in a Tokyo hotel before I was healthy enough to fly.

My Blue Cross wouldn't pay for that.

MomDDTravel

good explanation - thank you. I do take out travel insurance - I just do not think it is medical. I have had one too many trips cancel and last year ended up with 5,500 lost on a safari. Well, we ended up donating it but still... I have taken out trip insurance on my two more expensive trips but I do not think it is medical.

LoveItaly

Regarding various travel insurance policies..

www.insuremytrip.com

is considered to be a very information website where you can compare various insurance companies travel policies to find the one that offers the protection you need along with the premium etc.

I believe in most cases one does have to buy the insurance within a certain amount of days after paying for the trip/airline tickets.

I have never purchased any type of travel insurance but just may next trip. I will review the above website for sure.

MomDDTravel

Yes, LI - I learned last year you definately have to do it within a certain amount of time. I will have to go back and look at what I purchased to see if medical was included. I was more worried based on our track record of having to cancel plans about the $$$ lost if we had to cancel. I will never do another trip without TI if it is expensive and non-refunable.

PalenQ

I had to go to the ER in Florence's university area hospital and though i did have to wait an hour or so i had English speaking doctors who i thought were very good

and best of all it was free.

I inquired at the Florence tourist office hotel booking thing in the train station and they gave me the address of a private clinic as well and also the ER of the hospital.

If emergency head to the ER IMO

MomDDTravel

Oh yes, definately. I am sorry if I gave the impression that the pharmacy would be the place to go in an emergency. I knew my dd just needed meds and a doctor and did not think that the ER would be the place to go for that, but if we struck out at the Pharmacy we would have been heading there.