Depends. When I broke my leg I had to wait a couple hours to get in to see a doctor, then surgery was a couple days. Even without a family doctor though if you’re just sick and need like some penicillin or stitches or something as long as you don’t go in a major city it’s like 15 minute wait times, usually no longer than an hour. Then you go in, tell em what’s wrong, they deal with it and prescribe you some drugs, then you leave and go get your drugs at the drug store. You gotta pay for the drugs unless you have benefits at your job though. Everything else is free.

Edit: am Canadian.

UK. Phone local GP, no appointments available for ~3 weeks, maybe get a call back appointment in 2 weeks if I'm lucky. Alternative is to phone every morning between 0830-0900 and either not get through or be told there are still no appointments available.

I have found walk in pharmacists to be well educated (better than many GPs?!) and available without appointment so they're usually my first port of call.

i just go 😊

France, not a big city. If I'm sick. I call the doctor office, in another city because all doctors here have no places. I may book an appointment in two or three weeks. If I really need a doctor, I can book an appointment to "sos doctor", that I will pay for a part (and part healthcare), or go to a non-vital emergency doctor at night, which is expensive (for a doctor in France) but reimbursed by healthcare. I can have access to this because I'm still in/near a city.

The waiting time in a doctor office can be long, depending if they take time for their patients or not. I'm ok with that. If I have an appointment to my usual doctor, I don't pay or I only pay a little part which will be reimbursed minus 1€ (50/year max). There are doctors with exceding fees, like "sos doctor", those feeds are out of my pocket. Most of the time, we have healthcare AND private insurance, but there is a health insurance for poor people.

For medecine, most of the times we don't pay anything but there are fees, 1€/medecine box (50/year max, but not the same as the 50 for doctors).

Canada, I make an appointment with my family doctor, usually within a week, free. Specialists are more annoying because our right wing provincial government keeps chipping away at public healthcare and justifying it with its own results, but generally goes pretty quick too.

Norway, I book online if it's not urgent and wait a few weeks. If it's urgent I call them and get it same day. Costs about ~250 NOK or ~20 USD I think. Public doctors are always at least 45 minutes late (unless you are late if course, then they call you on time)

I also had a non-urgent matter, but felt like wait time was too long (holiday season) so I went to a private clinic, got appointment same day and paid about 700 NOK I think.

I go there, tell my story, if they need to take some samples they can usually do them on site right away for no additional charge.

If I need some medicine they prescribe that and tell me to come back in x weeks if it's not getting better.

If they can't help me I get a referral. It could take a long time to get certain procedures, especially if they are not urgent/very important, but most of the time it's been a few weeks for my issues.

Thailand. Private pay.

Take a ride share car to the private hospital.

Greeted by concierge when I walk in. She asks why I'm here and then directs me to another desk on another floor.

Entering the next room feels a bit like a hotel lobby. There are big sofas and comfortable lighting. It feels cozy even though it's a large space. There's a Starbucks. Another concierge approaches me. I explain why I'm here and I'm sat down and handed an iPad where I can fill in some medical background. They have my record from a previous visit so it's quick. I confirm that I will pay with a credit card instead of using any insurance.

In about 10 minutes I'm brought to a room where a nurse catches my weight and blood pressure. Then I'm brought to the patient exam room.

A few minutes later the doctor comes in and performs his examination. He makes his diagnosis types some notes into his computer. He asks me to come back for a follow-up in one week and pick up my prescription on the way out.

Leaving the exam room, another nurse catches me to hand me the diagnosis paperwork and points me to the pharmacy.

I walk to the pharmacy and hand them my paperwork. They collect my payment for the whole visit and ask me to wait until my name is called to pick up the prescription.

About 10 minutes later the prescription is ready and I'm out the door with a small bag of drugs and about $125 out of my wallet.

The service is comprehensive and everything is available in one building. For this country it's a bit expensive but you feel like you're very well taken care of and it's instant.

Switzerland

Depends a bit on the plan you have. Generally I would call the clinic registered with my health insurance or fill in their online form to make an appointment. Depending on what it is you get an appointment within the week, but for more pressing issues it's usually on the same day.

If it's an emergency I can go to any hospital or clinic, but depending on my insurance I would be transfered after the acute symptoms are taken care of.

If for some reason I'm not anywhere close to my registered clinic, I have to call a 24/7 number to get a referral to a doctor nearby.

Prices are reasonable for the high level in Switzerland. Deductibles limits handle how much you have to pay out of pocket, so it rarely fucks you up.

The real issue is the ever increasing insurance premiums. They are not tied to your income level, but to where you live, your gender and age. Poorer people get support by the government, but that's just tax money flowing directly into private insurance companies.

It's immensely expensive!
I went to the doctor and he charged me 1 euro.
The imaging in the hospital and the orthopedist only cost 2.8 euro.
So they're really leeching it.

But seriously it's difficult to get an appointment and nowhere do they take new patients.
Smart government decided on a numerus clausus and now there aren't enough doctors.
The ones that are there lately don't want to work fulltime, so even less availability.

Australian here from Victoria. Going to the GP will cost me around $80 up front and I get around $50 back from Medicare later. This is for about a 30 minute consultation with a doctor. The wait time is rarely longer than 15 minutes but it really depends on the practice. I've waited 2+hours for a GP that was fully covered by Medicare.

Brazil

An USian journalist recently described his health care treatment in Brazil: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/06/29/brazil-health-care-sus-hospitals/

I believe this is a good description of the public health care here. I disagree with his statement on workers' strike. He didn't mention that Bolsonaro and Temer (last 2 presidents) reduced spending in public health care which probably impacted the hospital this journalist got taken care.

UK.

Until recently, if I wanted an appointment I had to phone the GP surgery the moment it opened at 8:30 in the morning, wait in a phone queue for ten minutes or so before I got to speak to a receptionist who'd give me an appointment with which ever GP had some free time that day. It wasn't usually possible to book an appointment several days in advance.

A couple of months back they switched to an app which gives much more flexibility, allows you to choose which doctor you want to see and allows you to book appointments in advance. I do worry that they're going to push everyone to use that since old gippers are likely to struggle with the app unless they're semi-tech savvy. Also, it's obvious to me that they're setting this up to use AI to triage requests if they're not already doing that.

Appointments always used to be face to face but since covid they're increasingly phone consultations especially for follow-ups. If it's a first, diagnostic appointment it's still likely to be face to face though.

For face to face, the wait time is generally less than half an hour from the point I get to the GP surgery.

Obv. it's free at the point of use. I've paid my taxes.

Edit to add: if you're on low income, or are a child, old, etc you get your prescriptions free. Otherwise you have to pay for them at £9.90 per 2 month prescription. I'm on a shitload of medication and that would normally cost me well over £500 a year, but I get a prepayment certificate which costs me £114.50 a year and covers all medication.

I was on vacation in Portugal and twisted my ankle badly. It was in remote area, so hospital was not the best. But experience was ok. It was in a town with around 25k people. 2 hours of waiting. x-ray and doctor visit costed me 55 euros.

In my home country I pay 20 euros per month for private health insurance. This includes basic dental insurance. I guess, most expensive procedure I had is MRI of brain, but it was also fully covered so I’m not sure what was the price. There is free healthcare but I only had to resort to it once

Italy

If it is a routine visit, one week. If you are sick a prescription is done via phone, you will find your needed medications already in the pharmacy or it will be coming in 3 days max. Your health records, allergies and needs are already in the doctor's database and your prescription will account for that.

Practices done in public infrastructure is free, and most presciption medications are too,

But we do have a very serious wait time problem with specialist visits. In the worst cases it can take more than a year if you need special visitations. There just aren't enough medics specialized to fill those positions, and who is available prefers less stressful and overworked positions.

I usually book an appointment. Appear on the proper day. Get my exams done, leave, no money spent. If it's like a screening for something that can be done in a public health clinic, I'll go, spend about 30 mins to one hour waiting, talk to the doc, get whatever prescriptions they give me, get discharged and go home, no money spent.

Poland:

If I'm sick or it's the 1st step in getting something diagnosed: I call the (public) clinic to book an appointment, get a date within like 3 days max. I usually leave with a prescription and paid doctor's leave for work. The visit costs nothing. If it's urgent you can walk in without an appointment or call the ambulance/go to the ER in your local hospital. This is free.

Sometimes the doctor gives you a medical referral to a specialist or for a certain test. This can be realized in the public health system, or at a private clinic.

Wait times vary a lot - some things like a blood test are very quick, but some specialists in the public system have very long wait times. Like, 6 months to a year. Some surgeries in the public system can take even longer. The public system is free, or has a small symbolic fee.

The private system is much faster for certain specialists - dentists, psychologists, dermatologists, injury rehabilitation, ect. but it also can't do everything. In my experience, almost all serious and niche surgeries are done in the public system for example.

Overall it's a decent experience, but the system is severely underfunded. This isn't really a case of mismanagement imo, it's genuinely just a lack of money in the system. Some surgeries can get delayed because money allocated for them ran out for the year.