AMAZING! I had a cold that turned for the worse when I went sightseeing in Florence in the rain and when I had this horrible hacking cough and a slight fever that kept me up at night, I had to find a doctor. My fiance and I tried to do as much research online as possible and there were a few Yelp reviews and some discussion on the English Forum but I will tell you every step of my experience to convince you that you should use the clinics in Switzerland.
Firstly, it was Monday after Easter so I expected everything to be closed but lo and behold, the doctors were still hard at work here. It's in the Zurich HB station but the only accessible door is from the outside where the trams come and go. I read online that I do not need an appointment, walk-ins only. Already it seemed too good to be true if I could even see a doctor on the same day. At the office, I took a number from the machine and filled out a little paperwork. Then the receptionist (who speaks perfect English) gave me a website URL where you can check your place in line instead of waiting in the reception/waiting room where there were about 15 chairs, mostly occupied by people who looked like they had mild colds. It was a beautiful day outside and I could go for a little breakfast so I shopped around HB while I periodically checked the website (as there's free wifi in the station!) In about 30 minutes, my number was up so I returned to the clinic and waited 5 minutes before a doctor called me by my name. He spoke several languages, of course (and English proficiently). He took me upstairs to his office and I told him about my horrible cough problem, fever, chills, etc. and he entered the information diligently into his computer. He took my vitals and then checked my breathing with his stethoscope. Then he told me he would run a blood test to check my white blood cell count and other indicators for infection. I went downstairs with my chart, waited in a back waiting room for 5 minutes and then a nurse called me and she took my blood immediately. The test results were READY IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES and I took the results back upstairs to the doctor I just met with and he explained the results, wrote out my prescriptions and I took my file to the receptionist where I paid the CHF 125 or so for the bloodwork and the consultation by credit card, which I got reimbursed by my new healthcare provider. I was amazed at this low cost compared to what it would've been and how long it would've taken in the US. I went next door to the pharmacy and got my meds in 10 minutes, they have a fountain so I took my first dosage there and went home on the Zurich transport system that's always on time! The doctor said I will be all better in one week and I was. It was overall a very satisfactory experience and was firsthand proof of the amazing healthcare system here. I spoke to my ER doctor friend back home in NYC who said my kind of experience could not happen in the US unless there was a major overhaul of the American healthcare system so I'm grateful for Permanence Clinic and their staff. read more