In fact, it seems it's not simple at all, and we are just about ready to give up!
On the Polish Government website that details the procedure, it sounds easy. Foreigners need to see a General Practitioner Primary Health Care Provider and they will input your passport number into the health care computer system. Then, they will be able to issue an e-referral so that you can register for a vaccination shot.
So we looked up a couple of nearby medical centers and figured we would just go in and explain our situation.
The first one said that they were a private facility and you needed to be registered there already. The next one referred us to another one a couple of kms away, so we walked over there. But no luck there either. We found another one nearby, but nobody spoke English, and it was kind of pointless trying to explain using google translate.
We even stopped into a vaccination center where the one girl helped us find another place that couldn't help us. They all say they don't have access to the necessary computer system. One place told us they had one doctor that had access, but it would cost about $65 each to see him. Then they went and checked, and told us it wasn't possible.
It turns out that Poland has a confusing mix of public and private services.
We pretty much wasted the morning, although we saw some neighborhoods we probably wouldn't have otherwise and we were getting some exercise in on a beautiful day.
Old market building.
The inside is now just shops and a grocery store.
View of downtown.
We also stopped in to the downtown Avis car rental location. I remember from my days working with that industry that they often have one way cars rentals that need to be returned to their original location, so I asked the guy if they have any German plated vehicles that need to be returned to Germany. He is checking with their fleet manager and will get back to me today.
We decided to walk down to the river and then along the waterfront area to get back home.
Scenery along the way.
St. Aleksandra Church.
Our route to the river took us through a big park and we sat and had some lunch. Hardly anybody around, and we find that for a big city of 1.8 million people, it's not very busy.
Walking through the park, we came across a metal fence and on the other side of the fence were a bunch of military vehicles. Obviously some kind of military museum...
Military museum.
Made it to the Vistula River and on the opposite side was Warsaw's huge National Stadium. It seats 58,500 people.
National Stadium.
Notice there is also a beach on the other side. Warsaw is interesting in that one side of the river is more developed than the other. The opposite side has the Warsaw Zoo, and many nature trails and parks and beaches. In fact, it is said that Warsaw has the best urban beaches in Europe.
There are lots of barges and boats that are made into restaurants.
And lots of walking and cycling paths along the river.
Looking back towards the Old town area.
As you can see from the photos, it was a beautiful day. Perfect, actually. Nice blue skies, and temperature about 23C (73F). Quite a change from our dismal Sunday.
We made it home and had walked 17.1 kms (10.6 miles) in four and a half hours. Of course that included the time spent talking to all of those medical clinics.
Today, we will try one more possibility for seeing a doctor, but then we give up. Maybe we'll try again in Germany.
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And in Canada...
Wouldn't the Canadian embassy/consulate in Warsaw be able to offer some guidance?
ReplyDeleteThey may have been able to offer some assistance or guidance but at this point we have decided that we no longer have time, as we will be leaving Poland in a couple of days. We will try again in Germany and Kevin also found that France is a good spot where we could get the vaccination done. Thanks for the idea though.
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