Doctors, insurance and emergencies in Helsinki

Who is entitled, and what to do before you are

Entitlement to public health care rests on having a municipality of residence, which takes weeks to arrive. Until it does, the working newcomer's route is occupational health care: employers are legally obliged to arrange and pay for preventive occupational health care, and most Helsinki employers buy a GP service along with it, so ask which provider you are on before you need it. The other fallbacks are a European Health Insurance Card and paying privately. EU and EEA citizens with an EHIC, and UK holders of an EHIC, GHIC or Citizens' Rights Card, get medically necessary care at the same prices as residents, and Nordic citizens get the same on production of an official identity card.

Health stations, and what they cost

Helsinki runs its own health stations, and HUS, the Helsinki and Uusimaa hospital group, provides specialised and emergency hospital care. Your health station follows your home address, though you may change to another if you prefer, and the appointment itself with a doctor or nurse costs nothing. Book by phoning the station, through the Omaolo symptom assessment, which is available around the clock with a professional's reply within two hours, or through the Maisa patient app. Other city fees do apply, and a remote appointment costs 80 per cent of the equivalent in-person fee.

• Medical certificate €60.60, and the same €60.60 for a missed or uncancelled appointment if you are 18 or over.
• Physiotherapy appointment €19.90, home visit €17.50, remote appointment €15.90, but direct-access physiotherapy at a health station is free.
• School and student health care, vaccinations, treatment of communicable diseases and occupational therapy are free.

HUS fees and the annual cap

HUS charges €30.20 for a GP or nurse appointment on weekdays between 08:00 and 20:00, and €71.30 on weekday evenings and nights, at weekends and on public holidays, which is the same €71.30 as a specialist appointment, an outpatient clinic visit or emergency dental care at a health centre. Day surgery is €233.80, short-term inpatient care €71.50 a day and psychiatric inpatient care €32.80 a day, while outpatient visits for under-18s and all psychiatric emergency visits are free. The client fee cap for 2026 is €815, and once you exceed it, covered public services are largely free for the rest of the calendar year and the daily hospital fee drops to €26.80.

• Doctors' certificates, ambulance transport, occupational health care, missed-appointment fees and private care do not count towards the cap.

Emergencies and out of hours

112 is the emergency number, free from any phone including one with no SIM, answered in Finnish, Swedish and English with telephone interpreting in other languages; call it for chest pain, breathing difficulty, paralysis, unconsciousness, heavy bleeding or seizures. For anything urgent but not life-threatening, call the Medical Helpline on 116117, free and staffed around the clock for Uusimaa, or 09 471 72328 at local rates. Calling first is recommended rather than compulsory: you may go straight to an emergency department if you cannot reach the helpline in reasonable time, cannot use a phone, or already hold an emergency referral. Helsinki residents aged 16 and over go to the Malmi or Meilahti emergency departments, and children under 16 to the paediatric emergency department at the New Children's Hospital.

• The 112 Suomi app shares your location automatically.
• The Poison Information Centre is on 0800 147 111, toll-free and answered 24 hours a day, every day. The older number, 09 471 977, still reaches it at normal call rates.

Private care, and where it stops

Private care costs considerably more than public care, and Kela reimburses only a small portion of it if you are covered by Finnish national health insurance. Show the Kela card at the desk for the deduction at the point of sale, or claim afterwards, and ask the clinic for its current price list rather than relying on a figure from a forum. If a private doctor refers you to HUS for laboratory tests, HUS adds a €26.50 sampling and processing fee on top of the test prices and those tests are not eligible for Kela compensation. HUS does not perform imaging on a private physician's referral at all.