FAQ Medical aid and prevention

A family doctor/general practitioner is usually the first point of contact for health issues. If you are new to the city, you can search for a doctor athttps://arztsuche.116117.de/pages/arztsuche.xhtml. That is a website of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung.

If the symptoms are so serious that it is not possible to wait until the next day, the medical on-call service (free telephone number: 116117) will inform you which doctor is currently on call and how help can be provided. Even if there is no emergency, a doctor can come to your home if you are severely restricted by your symptoms.

A single pharmacy also has a service at night. You can find out which pharmacies are currently open, for example www.aponet.de/apotheke/notdienstsuche .

You are admitted to hospital, i.e. for inpatient treatment, either when the attending doctor refers you for further treatment. For example, if the situation is very urgent or the symptoms are very severe. You are also taken to hospital by ambulance after an emergency call.

In the event of severe complaints requiring urgent medical attention, the emergency medical services can be reached on 112. Paramedics and an emergency doctor will come directly to the address given. In most cases, you will then be taken to hospital by ambulance for treatment. There is usually an additional charge of 10 EURO for transport in the ambulance.

Most vaccinations can be obtained from your family doctor/general practitioner. Before travelling abroad, you can get information about the necessary vaccinations at the public health office and, if necessary, also have them vaccinated. The Health Office in Ilmenau (Gesundheitsamt) is located in the Krankenhausstr. 12 and can be reached by telephone at 03677 6570. Before a vaccination, the personal vaccination card must always be presented. The vaccination will be entered in it.

Students at the TU Ilmenau can contact Stefan Weniger or Sarah Bolz from the Psychosocial Counselling Service of the Studierendenwerk if they have any psychological complaints. The Psychosocial Counselling Service is available on Tuesdays from 3-5 pm at the telephone number 03677 69-3813, by email to stefan.weniger@stw-thueringen.de or   sarah.bolz@stw-thueringen.de. You can also use the online service for a consultation appointment: https://www.stw-thueringen.de/en/counselling/psycho-social-counselling/making-an-appointment-for-consultation/.

In addition, the family doctor/general practitioner can help with mental health problems and refer patients to appropriate services if necessary.

Tests for sexually transmitted infections can be carried out by family doctors, dermatologists, gynaecologists (women's doctors), urologists (specialists for male genital organs) and the public health office. More information on sexually transmitted diseases is available from e.g. https://www.zanzu.de/en/. Zanzu is a project and website of the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) and the Flemish Expertise Centre for Sexual Health. The BZgA also has the website https://www.liebesleben.de/en/ on the topic of sexually transmitted infections, safer sex and sexuality.

If you have questions about contraceptives, your gynaecologist can help you. After a consultation and an examination, women can also get a prescription for the appropriate contraceptive. In most cases, you have to pay for the contraceptive yourself.

Condoms are available without a prescription in pharmacies, drugstores and supermarkets.

More information on sexuality and pregnancy can be found, for example, on https://www.zanzu.de/en/. Zanzu is a project and website of the German Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA) and the Flemish Expertise Centre for Sexual Health. The BZgA also has the website https://www.liebesleben.de/en/ on the topic of safer sex and sexuality.

If you want to find out more, there are several online sources available. Two of them with reliable information are the following.

The website gesundheit-mehrsprachig.de provides detailed information about the German healthcare system in 15 different languages.

Another portal for information is https://www.informedhealth.org of the Instituts für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen (IQWiG). The web pages are available in German and English.