I remember that trip report Tom, you seem to have more than your share of misadventures

Oh, your poor husband! I hope he gets better very soon.

Curious about what an Urgent Care Office is. I’ve never heard that term before. How are they different?

Sorry to hear this. Hope you've still been able to enjoy the area to some extent. We were in the Alta Badia a week earlier in September and it was beautiful for the most part - although we did have almost a half-foot of snow one evening.

Knock on wood, we've never had a serious illness that has required care while traveling. We've been with our daughter a couple of times when she had an allergic reaction (tree nuts), and both involved urgent trips to the pharmacy - but we would have gone for the ER if the reaction had been worse.

An Urgent Care center is what some would call a walk-in clinic.

Thanks for explaining, janisj.

Urgent care facilities are common in the US - no appointment needed, just turn up, give your details and insurance and wait to be seen. They're a godsend when you can't get in to see your own doctor (or don't have one) but don't require an ER. I recently discovered that my city even has an urgent care orthopedics center, which helped my mom when she was in desperate need of a steroid shot.

On two occasions I went to Urgent Care and was then sent to the ER - once for a broken bone, once for minor chest pain. Both times I got a snide little notice from my insurance company telling me I should have gone to urgent care first...hello? The ER bill must have hit before the Urgent Care bill.

On a trip last year one of us came down with covid, and we were able to get a telephone appointment at a local clinic in Ireland. They did not want anyone covid-positive actually in the clinic. They prescribed paxlovid which the local pharmacy delivered to our lodging. All quite easy. Being in an English speaking country removed any language barrier. Our out of pocket expenses were very low - less that $100 total for appointment and meds. Our US private health insurance plan covered those out of pocket expenses. Reimbursement process was pleasantly simple.

We make sure we bring covid test kits with us whenver we travel, as well as any meds we may want - at least enough to get us through a day or 2....

We found "Doctors In Italy" online and they were very helpful for exactly the same situation you are in, we were in Puglia and both got Covid on day 2 despite all our vaccines being up to date. He made a phone call to an english speaking Doctor who prescribed antibiotics,steroids, cough mixture and pain killers as husband had a secondary infection after Covid and was quite ill. He also had him buy a blood oygen metre to keep an eye on levels. Got him fit enough for the flight home but resulted in long covid so the the recovery has taken quite a long time. We have just decided to book another trip to Italy in May next year as we just love going there!! The Doctor took it very seriously as husband is in his mid 70s.It was worth the cost of the Phone consult to get help and medication and to get us home safely.
Good Luck

In US I had an horrific cough and found a pharmacy who had a brilliant nurse practioner -very impressed.
Another time I got the name of a doctor from the hotel I was staying at in NY -I went to his rooms-another cough.
Another time staying with friends in Minnesota I went to the urgent care in their town for an infected big toe. The bill came 2 months later..
Ive been to the dentist twice whilst os -once in US and once in London.

Australia has reciprocal health care arrangements with 10 European countries and NZ. You just hav eto show the Oz medicare card.
.