Living in Germany but your German is not so good yet? Doctolib & Doctena come to the rescue, as they easily allow you to find physicians & GPs speaking English (or another) language – and immediately make an appointment at them, for free.
It might be fine to practice your German at a party or at the supermarket, but if the situation is more serious, you want to be able to express yourself more easily. Like when having a health issue.
How to find English-speaking doctors
There are a few lists online of English speaking doctors – but to make an appointment, you still need to contact them on your own.
But luckily, we have two German web portals that allow you both to find doctors speaking a specific language, and to make immediately an appointment online: Doctena & Doctolib.
Doctena
Doctena has an English interface so there is not much to explain: Simply fill out “Speciality & expertise”, add your city and pick “English” at “Language”.
Doctolib
Doctolib unfortunately has only a German interface, so these screenshots with translations give some help.
On the homepage, we only have a simple form with 2 fields:
- Name or speciality: Enter here the type of doctor / specialist you are looking for. The list is in German, so if in doubt, look up the specialist’s name in a dictionary. For instance a dermatologist is Dermatologe. Start typing and then pick the correct name from the list below.
- District, city or postal code: Enter your postal code or district if you are looking for a close doctor, or city if e.g. all of Berlin is good for you.
Click on Suchen (Search).
We now see a list of first results – but we can filter them more. In the screenshot above I have already made some changes:
- Gesprochene Sprachen – spoken languages: Set this to English (or another language you speak)
- Besuchsgrund – reason for visit: If you are looking for a new doctor you have not been before to, pick Erstuntersuchung / Neupatient, saying that you are a new patient.
Besides, you can also filter for:
- Verfügbarkeit – availability: Look only for doctors with free appointments today or within the next 3 days
- Versicherung – insurance type: Pick the type of your health insurance. Kasse = public insurance (like TK, AOK, Barmer, DAK etc.), Privat / Selbstzahler – private insurance.
- Videosprechstunde – video consultation: if you prefer to stay at home and talk to a doctor via a video call
Look for doctors with free appointments. This is how their calendars look like:
Once you have found a time slot that works for you, click on it.
Now you are being asked to register a new account or login with your existing account. Probably you have no account yet, so you need to register.
Fill out the registration form with your phone number, e-mail address and choose a password.
And code is sent to you by SMS (or in case of a landline number: an automatic call is made) and you receive a 3-digit code. Enter it here.
Now pick the person you are making an appointment for.
Since you are new, you have to fill out your personal data.
Finally, confirm your appointment. After that, you will also receive an email.
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Hope this helps! Feel free to ask in the comments.
