Getting Sick in Sweden: A Tourist's Guide to Healthcare
Which door to use when you fall ill, how to be seen without a personnummer, what it costs by entitlement, and the 1177 number that works abroad.
I need healthcare
Healthcare, pharmacies, insurance and more
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1177: Sweden's Medical Advice Line
Sweden's 24-hour nurse advice line. Dial 1177 from a Swedish phone, +46 771 11 77 00 from a foreign one. Press 5 for English. Life-threatening: 112.
EHIC and GHIC in Sweden: What They Cover
What the card buys in Sweden, what it never covers, why digital versions are refused, and the private-clinic trap that costs visitors the whole bill.
Guides
- Emergency Rooms in Sweden: How Akuten Works When to go to akuten, why the wait runs to hours, what to bring and what visitors pay. Triage, children's ERs and the EU card, from official sources.
- Dental Emergencies in Sweden Toothache or a broken tooth in Sweden: which dentist to call by day, weekend or night, what an EHIC really covers, and when it's a case for the ER.
- Pharmacies in Sweden: How Apotek Work Supermarkets sell some medicine but not paracetamol tablets. A foreign paper prescription works here; an e-prescription does not. And the advice is free.
- Buying Painkillers and OTC Medicine in Sweden Ipren is on the supermarket shelf; paracetamol tablets are pharmacy-only since 2015. The brand table, the 18-year rule, and where to buy at night.
- Alvedon, Ipren and Friends: Swedish Medicine Names Decoded Alvedon is paracetamol, Ipren is ibuprofen. Find your usual medicine in Sweden by substance name, and why pack size decides prescription status.
- Getting a Prescription Filled as a Visitor Only a paper EEA prescription works in a Swedish pharmacy. E-prescriptions and UK or US prescriptions don't. How to get a Swedish one, and what it costs.
- Ticks in Sweden: TBE, Lyme and How to Stay Safe Lyme is common and curable; TBE is rare and vaccine-preventable. How to remove a tick correctly, when to see a doctor, and who the vaccine is really for.
- Do You Need the TBE Vaccine for Sweden? No vaccine is required. Who the TBE recommendation covers, why Stockholm city differs from the archipelago, and how many weeks the vaccine needs.