Health, vaccinations and medical care in Macao

Where to go

• Both main hospitals run 24-hour emergency departments and both are used to foreign patients.
• For anything less than urgent, the public health centres are quicker than a hospital.
• You will be billed as a visitor. Take insurance covering treatment and repatriation; Hong Kong is 15 minutes away by helicopter and an hour by ferry if you need a bigger hospital.

Everyday health

• No health certificates are required of visitors in normal circumstances.
• The water is supplied from the mainland, purified and chlorinated. Hotels and restaurants provide distilled drinking water as a matter of course, which is what most people actually drink.
• Summer is hot and very humid, and Macao's streets are narrow and unshaded. The historic centre in August is harder work than it looks on a map.
• Pharmacies are common; the Pharmaceutical Administration Bureau lists the registered ones.

Medicines

• Carry prescriptions in the original packaging. Macao regulates controlled medicines strictly and this is a border where a loose bag of pills is a problem.
• Anything containing CBD or cannabis is illegal, exactly as in Hong Kong and mainland China.