Danish healthcare: how it works, and the words you need

Danish healthcare is public and paid for through taxes. When you live in Denmark and have a CPR number, you get your own family doctor and a yellow health card, and visits to the doctor and treatment at the hospital are free. Your doctor is the door to everything else. Below is how it works, and the Danish you need to book an appointment, with audio.

How does Danish healthcare work?

1. You register and get a CPR number. That is your personal number, and the health system uses it for everything.
2. You get a family doctor. In Danish your GP is din egen læge, “your own doctor”. You choose one near where you live, among the doctors who take new patients.
3. The yellow card arrives by post. Det gule sundhedskort has your name, your CPR number and your doctor’s name and address. It also exists as an app.
4. You go to your doctor first. The doctor treats you or refers you to a specialist or a hospital. Some, like the dentist and the eye doctor, you can go to directly.

What is free, and what do you pay for?

Most people are in group 1: the visits to your own doctor and to a specialist you are referred to are free. In group 2 you can go to any doctor without a referral, but you pay part of the bill. Hospital treatment is free in both groups.

You pay part of the price for the dentist for adults, for medicine and for glasses. There is help for medicine you use a lot, which the pharmacy (apoteket) takes care of automatically.

Before your CPR number and yellow card are ready, you are not in the system yet. Many newcomers have private travel or health insurance for those first weeks.

What do you do at night, or in an emergency?

• 112 is for emergencies: an accident, a person who is not breathing, chest pain.
• Your own doctor in the daytime, on weekdays. Call in the morning; many doctors have a phone time when you can book.
• Out of hours, you call before you go. In the Capital Region it is 1813. In the other regions, it is the out-of-hours doctor (lægevagten), and the number is on your region’s website and on sundhed.dk.

Do not just walk into an emergency room. In Denmark you call first, and they tell you where to go.

Is the Danish healthcare system good?

For most of my students, yes: it is free when you use it, the doctors are well trained, and you do not need to think about insurance for normal treatment. The parts newcomers find hard are different. You cannot go straight to a specialist, you sometimes wait for an appointment, and the doctor may tell you to wait and see instead of giving you medicine. And it is all in Danish, unless your doctor speaks English. Many do, but you will understand more if you can do the basic conversation yourself.

How to book an appointment in Danish

At the doctor’s, the dentist’s or the hairdresser’s, an appointment is en tid, not en time. This is a phone call from the course, where you call the surgery because your back hurts. Tap any line to hear it.

• Lægehuset, det er Birgitte.The surgery, this is Birgitte.
• Jeg vil gerne bestille en tid hos lægen.I’d like to book an appointment with the doctor.
• Hvad drejer det sig om?What is it about?
• Jeg har haft ondt i ryggen i to uger.I’ve had a pain in my back for two weeks.
• Har I en tid i morgen?Do you have an appointment tomorrow?
• Men jeg har en tid på onsdag klokken ni fyrre.But I have an appointment on Wednesday at 9:40.
• Undskyld, ni fyrre? Er det tyve minutter i ti?Sorry, nine forty? Is that twenty to ten?
• Skal jeg have noget med?Do I need to bring anything?
• Ja, husk dit sundhedskort. Det gule kort.Yes, remember your health card. The yellow card.
• Så skal du melde afbud senest klokken otte samme morgen.Then you must cancel by eight o’clock that morning at the latest.

Notice the time. The receptionist says ni fyrre, like a timetable, and you check it in everyday Danish. Times are the part of this call most people get wrong; the guide to Danish numbers has the clock.

Telling the doctor what is wrong

Pain is ondt i plus the body part. These are the sentences you need first:

• Jeg har det skidt.I feel awful.
• Jeg har ondt i hovedet.I have a headache.
• Jeg har ondt i halsen.I have a sore throat.
• Jeg tror, jeg har feber.I think I have a temperature.
• Jeg er forkølet.I have a cold.
• God bedring!Get well soon! (what others say to you)

Questions people ask

Is healthcare free in Denmark?

Visits to your own doctor and hospital treatment are free for residents in group 1. You pay part of the price for adult dental care, medicine and glasses.

Do I need the yellow card to see a doctor?

Bring it, or have the app. The reception uses it to find you in the system.

Can I change my doctor?

Yes. You can choose another doctor who takes new patients. There may be a fee, depending on the reason; your municipality can tell you.