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Buenos Aires at a Glance

Medical Services in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires has great medical facilities, but private healthcare is recommended.

Medical Care

For your own and your family’s well-being during an expat assignment, good medical care abroad is essential. You’ll be happy to hear that most medical facilities in Buenos Aires have a positive reputation. In the 1960s, Argentina made it into the annals of medical history when a cardiac surgeon from Córdoba, the country’s second most important university town, developed the first purely artificial heart.

However, just like about everywhere, the quality of actual care you receive in Buenos Aires strongly depends on your health insurance. We have explained the basics of Argentina’s rather complicated healthcare system in our overview of living in Argentina. Private hospitals, such as the main clinics popular in the foreign community, only accept patients covered by selected insurance providers.

Hospitals

Two clinics popular among foreigners living in Buenos Aires are the British Hospital Buenos Aires and the Hospitál Alemán. Both accept a considerable number of non-Argentine patients, so the language barrier shouldn’t be a problem here, especially not for English and German native speakers. Their staff offers general consultations as well as comprehensive specialist care.

Their main location is in Recoleta, in the northern part of town, but they both have several medical centers throughout the city and even in Gran Buenos Aires. If you are unsure whether the British Hospital or the Hospitál Alemán accepts your insurance plan as coverage (cobertura), please get directly in touch with their admin staff. They also offer medical coverage of their own.

Emergency Services

Obtaining medical coverage from a private hospital in Buenos Aires may even come in handy in case of an accident or medical emergency. While the emergency hotline for Buenos Aires is 107 (medical assistance), private clinics tend to have a 24/7 emergency center of their own. Make sure to notify them directly if you or your family requires medical help.

If you just need to see an individual doctor, ask your country’s embassy or consulate in Buenos Aires for further information. They could provide you with a list of doctors in Argentina who speak your language, be it general practitioners or various specialists.

For picking up over-the-counter medicine, you do not even need a doctor. A trip to the nearest Farmacity, Argentina’s biggest chain of pharmacies/drugstores, will suffice. Keep an eye open for their characteristic blue-orange signs.