Practical information

Everything you need before your first visit: how to make an appointment, how to get here, what to bring, and how the Austrian system works if you have just moved.

Making an appointment

Appointments are by arrangement only, currently by e-mail to ordination@frauenarzt.net. Please say briefly what it is about: some examinations need more time than others, and some need a particular point in your cycle.

Useful to include:

• your name and date of birth
• your address and a phone number for queries
• your Austrian social insurance number, if you have one
• your reason for coming, in one sentence
• whether it is urgent, and why
• times that would suit you
• whether you would like the consultation in English

Date of birth and insurance number are not idle curiosity: names repeat more often than you would think, and that causes confusion when the appointment is entered. The date of birth identifies you clearly, the insurance number more precisely still – so nobody is mixed up.

Please cancel at least 48 hours in advance if you cannot come. For appointments not cancelled at least 24 hours in advance, a fee of € 100 is charged.

What to bring

• your e-card and a photo ID
• a list of your current medication with doses
• results of examinations or operations done elsewhere
• mammography reports, if you have them
• your Mutter-Kind-Pass if you are pregnant

Please do not send medical results by e-mail. Unencrypted e-mail is not a suitable channel for health data – bring documents with you or send them by post.

Getting here

Große Schiffgasse 4, staircase 1, door 4, 1020 Vienna – in the Karmeliterviertel, a few minutes from Schottenring.

• Underground: U2 and U4 to Schottenring, exit U2 Herminengasse; about five minutes on foot
• Tram: lines 2 and D, stop Salztorbrücke
• Bus: 5A stop Tandelmarktgasse, 2A stop Salztorbrücke
• Car: car park at Karmelitermarkt, entrance Krummbaumgasse, € 3.90 per hour

The whole 2nd district is a short-term parking zone, so public transport is genuinely faster. Access to the building is barrier-free and there is a large lift.

How the Austrian system works

This is a Wahlarztordination – a private practice without a contract with the public health insurance funds. You pay the fee and submit the invoice to your fund, which refunds 80 per cent of the corresponding contracted tariff. That is 80 per cent of what the same service would have cost with a contracted doctor, not 80 per cent of the fee you paid; the difference stays with you.

Those 80 per cent refer to the Austrian public insurance system. If you are insured elsewhere – privately or abroad – you can submit the invoice to your insurer just the same; what comes back then follows your individual cover, so it is worth asking beforehand what it includes.

Most funds now accept submissions through their online portals. There is a long deadline for submitting – as a rule 42 months – but invoices tend to get forgotten, so it is worth doing it promptly. All fees are listed on the fees page.

If you have just moved to Austria

Two things are worth knowing early. First, the Mutter-Kind-Pass (officially Eltern-Kind-Pass since 2024): if you are pregnant, this booklet documents a fixed schedule of examinations, and completing them within their time windows is a condition for receiving the full child care benefit. The maternity passport planner turns your due date into the actual dates.

Second, screening intervals here differ from those in many other countries: an annual gynaecological check-up covered by the e-card, a cervical smear every year at every age, and mammography every two years from 45 – with the e-card automatically enabled, no referral needed. An HPV test is covered where there is an indication, above all an abnormal smear; as a routine test without one you pay for it yourself, whatever your age. General blood tests belong to the health check at a GP, not here. The screening planner shows what applies at your age.

In an emergency

This practice is not an emergency service. For acute problems, contact the nearest hospital with a gynaecology department. In Vienna:

• 144 – ambulance
• 1450 – medical on-call service, also outside the opening hours of the practice
• 112 – European emergency number
• 01 71719 – Vienna women’s emergency helpline (Frauennotruf)