Healthcare on the islands

Praia and Mindelo have the two main public hospitals. Sal and Boa Vista have smaller facilities used to tourist cases — fractures, infections, a difficult night after the ferry. For anything complex — cardiac, neonatal, major trauma, cancer staging — the plan is medical evacuation to Lisbon, the Canaries or, sometimes, Dakar. That is not scare talk. It is how the archipelago works.

What exists on each island

Santiago: Hospital Dr. Agostinho Neto in Praia is the referral centre. Private clinics in Palmarejo and on the Plateau handle GP, paediatrics, dental and basic diagnostics. English is more common in the private rooms than in the public queue.

São Vicente: Hospital Baptista de Sousa in Mindelo covers the north of the archipelago. Mindelo has a decent private offer for a city of its size. Santo Antão sends serious cases over the channel.

Sal and Boa Vista: clinics and a hospital ward aimed at visitors and residents of the tourist strip. Good for stitches, dengue suspicion, and a chest infection. Not a place to wait out a heart attack.

Fogo, Brava, Maio, São Nicolau, Santa Luzia: local posts and a lot of boat or plane. If you live in Nova Sintra or Chã das Caldeiras, your insurance paperwork matters more than the nearest waiting room.

Paying for it

Cape Verde is not in the EU. EHIC and GHIC cards do not work. A holiday visitor should carry a travel policy that names evacuation, and the WhatsApp of a clinic in Santa Maria or Palmarejo.

Residents who contribute to INPS (the social-security system) get public cover. It is real, and it is not a European private ward. Combine INPS with a private policy that includes evacuation and inpatient care in Portugal. Premiums are the price of sleeping through a 2 a.m. fever.

Private clinics often take cash, card, and some European insurers. Ask before the appointment, not at the desk with a child in the chair. Same-day slots go by WhatsApp.

Medicines and chronic care

Pharmacies in Praia, Mindelo and Santa Maria are well stocked for antibiotics, blood pressure and diabetes basics. Specialist drugs and a particular inhaler can vanish for a month. Bring a buffer of any medicine you cannot skip, with the prescription and the generic name.

If you have a chronic condition, pick the island after you have spoken to a doctor who already works there — not after you have fallen in love with a caldera view.

What to do this month

• Photograph your policy, blood group, and a contact who can authorise treatment.
• Save a clinic WhatsApp on the island you actually sleep on.
• If you dive, know where the nearest chamber conversation starts (it is not every island).
• For pregnancy, plan the last trimester near Praia or Mindelo, or off-island.

Healthcare here is competent for everyday life and honest about its limits. The families who settle well treat evacuation insurance as a utility, like water.

Island notes for health

Praia is where you want to be for a planned procedure or a pregnancy that is not a holiday surprise. Mindelo is the northern equivalent. Sal handles tourists well and residents adequately. Santo Antão and Fogo require a plan for the night something is not adequate.

Dengue seasons come and go. Drink water you trust, use repellent in the evening, and do not tough out a fever because the villa is pretty. Pharmacies will tell you more, faster, than a Facebook group.

Lecture checklist

• Evacuation policy number in your phone and on paper.
• Clinic WhatsApp for the island you sleep on.
• Buffer of chronic medicines with generic names.
• INPS if you work here, private cover anyway.
• A plan for the nearest hospital that is not a rumour.

This chapter is short on romance and long on sleep. Buy the policy before the viewing trip, not after the first scorpion story.