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Health Care Services

Impor­tant contact information:

  • General emer­gency number 112
    • You reach the ambu­lance, police and fire brigade by calling the general emer­gency number
    • Calls to 112 are free of charge. When dialing the emer­gency number, you do not need any area code.
    • Please do not call the number unless there is a genuine emergency
  • North Karelia Central Hospital
    • Tikkamäen­tie 16
  • Medical helpline in any urgent situ­a­tion: 116117
  • Toxi­co­log­i­cal emer­gency: consul­ta­tion +358 800 147 111
  • Public health­care Stations: Siun Sote Health Stations and Emer­gency Care

Health care in Joensuu – public health­care and private clinics

Degree students are eligi­ble to use Finnish Student Health Service FSHS. Exchange students in Joensuu are recom­mended to use private clinics in non-urgent situ­a­tions. In public health care, the fees are the same as for the Finns if you have an EHIC card. More infor­ma­tion on the fees on Siun sote website.

You can use the services of private clinics e.g. to see a nurse, a dentist, a general prac­ti­tioner or a special­ist doctor. It may be easier to get an appoint­ment from private clinics than from public health care center if the health problem is not acute. Booking appoint­ments online is possible.

At private clinics you pay the fees of the appoint­ment and treat­ment your­self. Later, students with EHI card or equiv­a­lent docu­ments (citi­zens of Nordic coun­tries, EU/EEA coun­tries or Quebec) can go to Kela (The Social Insur­ance Insti­tu­tion of Finland) where they can be compen­sated for part of the medical fee. Alter­na­tively, they can claim for the compen­sa­tion from their own health insur­ance offices later, after return­ing to their home coun­tries. Natu­rally, students (includ­ing those from non-EU-coun­tries) can also claim for the compen­sa­tions from their personal travel insurance.

Private clinics in Joensuu

The fees in private clinics are substan­tially higher but you might get an appoint­ment sooner and claim back the cost later from your insur­ance company.

Students from EU, UK, Australia and Quebec (Canada)

All EU students are advised to obtain the Euro­pean Health Insur­ance Card (EHIC card) from their home country and always carry it with them. With this card, the students are enti­tled to medically neces­sary treat­ment at the same price as Finns. Please obtain the requested card already in your home country. If you do not have it, please ask your own health insur­ance office to send it to you.

UK students may use their EHIC card in Finland and other EU coun­tries until its expiry date. The GHIC card (global health insur­ance card), which provides similar bene­fits as EHIC for UK nation­als, replaces EHIC in the UK grad­u­ally as of 1.1.2021.

Finland has social secu­rity agree­ments related to health care with some coun­tries Australia and the province of Quebec, Canada, but we advise you to care­fully check the cover­age of the agree­ment and condi­tions on which bene­fits are avail­able at your own health insur­ance office before arriv­ing in Finland.

Please note that despite the EHIC/GHIC card or the social secu­rity agree­ment between Finland and your country, personal travel insur­ance is strongly recommended.

Dentist

In case of an acute toothache or infec­tion, contact the dental clinic where your need for care and level of urgency will be assessed. More infor­ma­tion on Siun Sote website.

Dentist on call from Monday to Friday: tel. +358 13 330 2411.

Outside office hours call 116117 for consul­ta­tion of the situation.

In addi­tion to above mentioned public sector service, there are private dentists as well. 

Insur­ance

Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences expects that all exchange and inter­na­tional students have a valid personal travel insur­ance during their stay in Joensuu. Karelia does not provide insur­ance for incom­ing students. This means that Karelia Univer­sity of Applied Sciences is not respon­si­ble for any payments or arrange­ments should some­thing happen.

Students who come from outside EU/EEA/Switzerland need a private insur­ance to cover their medical and drug expenses. Require­ments for a suit­able insur­ance are described on the MIGRI (Finnish Immi­gra­tion Service) website. Please note that the require­ment is differ­ent for exchange students and students coming to study the full degree in Finland!

Vacci­na­tions

Please make sure that you have valid vacci­na­tions against polio, tetanus, MPR and diph­the­ria and prefer­ably also COVID-19 already in your home country. Read care­fully the instruc­tions that you receive before arrival. This is espe­cially impor­tant for nursing, phys­io­ther­apy and social services students who aim to carry out clin­i­cal prac­tice during their exchange period. 

Phar­ma­cies

Medi­cines are sold only at phar­ma­cies (apteekki). Hygiene prod­ucts are avail­able in all super­mar­kets and depart­ment stores.

Yliopis­ton apteekki (address: Koskikatu 7) is open every day 8-23.

Other phar­ma­cies are located in the centre and in differ­ent parts of Joensuu. 

In case of crisis

We sincerely hope that your stay in Joensuu will be happy and reward­ing, without any adver­si­ties and hard­ships. But one can never know what will happen here in Finland or back at home. Do not hesi­tate to contact the Karelia staff if you find your­self in any distress­ing situ­a­tions, regard­less of the time of day.

Contact person in case of crisis is any of the staff members, preferably:

  • Student coun­selor
  • Tutor teacher
  • Student welfare officer
  • Inter­na­tional Coordinator

Write down and keep with you the contact infor­ma­tion of your student coun­selor from PAKKI (Karelia´s Student Portal) – Services for Students (login with Karelia account).

It is also possi­ble to consult profes­sion­als at

Crisis Helpline in Arabic and English +358 9 2525 0113
on Mon, Tue at 11-15, Wed at 13-16 and 17-21. Thu at 10-15