International travelers often have a hard time getting medical advice when they’re away from home. Even diagnosing and treating an unexplained rash or a bout of indigestion can be vexing when someone is abroad.
Of course, In the case of a potentially serious medical problem, travelers are likely (and should) head to a hospital emergency room. For lesser problems, urgent care clinics are an alternative, although they may be hard to find, have long wait times, and may not be an attractive option during a pandemic.
A new “at-home” option
Diversifying from ride-sharing to food, grocery, and alcohol delivery (and more), Uber is launching a new platform for medical care. Portugal is the first country where travelers will be able to use the Uber Eats app to order at-home healthcare, provided either via telehealth or on-site at their hotel or rental property. The service is available 24/7, 365 days a year.
According to a recent report in Medscape, the food delivery platform is calling its new service Medico em Casa (Doctor at Home). Users can order any one of three different services—house calls, video consultations, and phone consultations—all provided by general practitioners.
Priced at approximately $91, $23, and $23, respectively, the medical consultations are provided by a third party, Ecco-Salva Medical Services, that specializes in home healthcare. Not yet covered by most insurers, users would likely have to pay privately. The service is currently limited to the Lisbon metro area but the company hopes to expand to other large urban centers in Portugal.
Useful for travelers?
Anita Breland and Tom Fakler, intrepid travelers who write about food and wine, relocated to Porto, Portugal about six years ago. They’ve found healthcare in Portugal to be of high-quality, readily accessible, and very reasonably priced—both for citizens and expats—who are members of the national health system or who have good insurance coverage.
“In our six years in Portugal, we have used the centralized 24-hour telemedicine line when staying in a hotel, and from home to schedule Covid-19 vaccinations and to obtain our EU vaccination e-passports,” says Breland. “We have direct access to our personal physicians, who have given us their mobile numbers and have been told that some doctors make house calls.”
However, accessing medical care in a foreign country when you’re traveling, especially if you don’t know the language, can be dicey. Breland and Fakler see the new Uber Eats Medico em Casa app as potentially being a useful tool for international tourists, who may not have knowledge of, or access to, the national health line (which is in Portuguese).
“This launch is ‘another giant step’ for the platform to go ‘beyond the various restaurant, supermarket, convenience and other retail services,’” said Diogo Aires Conceição in a statement reported in The Portugal News.
