Very useful information! I am half way through this at the moment and enjoyed queuing for two hours at the Social Security office. The bureaucracy can be a bit off-putting.

Madeira which is an Autonomous Region apparently has its own bylaws! UK tourists have to pay to see the Dr. 120 euros if he comes to your hotel or 60 euros if you go to the clinic. (January 2007) I have seen many tourists who have had to pay even when they have produced their EEC Health card. "Only for hospital treatment" they were told. So much for reciprocity.
BTW the clinic in Funchal is in the street next to the Se.

The health card only entitles you to be treated the same as local residents - if they pay for home visits or to visit a clinic then so do you and this might be the case in Madeira. Also, it only entitles you to use the State facilities - if the hotel uses a docter from a private clinic or you visit one then you would have to pay for that to. When you're ill, you don't necessarily think to check this sort of thing out - you just want to see a docter wquickly - but private clinics are more common in places like Spain and Portugal than they are here and you do need to check.

SM

SMa, thanks, what you say makes sense to me now.

Not long returned from driving down to Lagos from the UK and while in Lagos broke a bone in my left foot. Lagos A & E were only bothered to see my passport even though I waved the E111 in her face. I was charged 9.40 Euros for a consultation and X-ray all inside 40 minutes. Had to go to Portimao for a cast and was in and out in 20 minutes. They referred to the computer about me and no charge was made in Portimao. Based on that experience I wouldn,t worry if you left home without your E111.

Hello all,
On our holiday to Lagos my wife ended up in Lagos Hospital and we have only good things to say about it. My wife slipped in the bath when having a shower it seems the slipmat was not a slipmat as it slipped and she fell over hitting her head on the taps, cutting her head open. Having cleaned it up the best I could we went down to the hotel reception to see if they had a firstaider and they did, but he told us it would be best to go to the hospital.
Once there they only wanted to see her passport and not her E1 11 and within half an hour we were out she had three stiches and a bill for 8.30 euros, can you ever see this time span down your local hospital.

Dave

Hi
We have just returned from pria da oura and my son needed six stitches in a hand wound. We were taken to the local health centre by the taxi. We were seen within minutes and were back at the pool within one hour. We had to return a further four times to get the bandages changed and then the stitches out. This was done at a Nurses outpatients clinic, which was on a first come first served bais.
The only documentation we were asked for was his passport, which from that they can tell if you are covered by the E111. We were not charged anything and on the whole it was a very good service.

had cause to visit the doctor and his consultation fee was 75euros,which appeared to be the norm as everyone else who came in paid the same no matter what nationality.was never asked for the e111 card only passport.
The shock came when we went to the Farmacia to pick up the two prescriptions, apparantly the clinic should have stamped the prescription which would have given me a significant discounts on the medicines.To my horror the cost for two packs of tablets came to 75.19 euros

Here are some links to show you what medical treatment you are entitled to with your EHIC card
http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=559&langId=en

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=564&langId=en

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=565&langId=en

having recently been caught up in the volcanic ash problem(extra weeks hols ) had to buy extra medication, costing 75 euros
back home was told to ring tel no on back of EHIC card and they would help.
That did not work but eventually was told to try my local Primary Health Care Trust, they said if I sent a letter with receipts they would sort, lo and behold I recieved a cheque yesterday for the full amount, so maybe this is worth knowing.

Thanks for that Nosivad