Informational only, not legal advice. Verify with official sources before relying on this.

Know Abroad

VietnamVietnam

Health & Medical Emergencies

Last verified August 15, 2026

Written for U.S. passport holders

Emergency Numbers

  • Dial 115 for an ambulance. Police is 113, fire is 114, all separate numbers; Vietnam doesn't have a single unified emergency line.
  • For consular help specifically, the U.S. Embassy/Consulate emergency lines are (024) 3850-5000 in Hanoi or (028) 3520-4200 in Ho Chi Minh City, the same numbers work outside office hours too.
  • For U.S. consular emergency assistance (a detained or hospitalized American, coordinating care, notifying family), call the State Department's Overseas Citizens Services from anywhere in the world: +1-888-407-4747 (from the U.S. or Canada) or +1-202-501-4444 (from overseas). This is separate from the local emergency number and won't dispatch an ambulance itself, but it's the number that gets the U.S. government involved.

Getting Treated as a Foreigner

  • As a foreign tourist, you'll generally be better served by a private, international-standard hospital (concentrated in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City) than a public one, but private facilities typically expect payment upfront or insurance verification.
  • The U.S. Embassy strongly recommends comprehensive travel medical insurance that specifically includes medevac coverage, since serious cases are sometimes better treated by evacuating to a hospital outside Vietnam entirely.

The Gotcha

The Embassy's recommendation to carry medevac-inclusive insurance is worth taking seriously here specifically, unlike some countries on this list where local private hospitals are considered adequate for nearly anything, Vietnam is one where serious cases sometimes genuinely warrant evacuation to Bangkok, Singapore, or elsewhere rather than staying for treatment. That's an expensive flight to be paying for out of pocket.

Sources

This page was drafted from the primary sources below. Rules change, so check the linked page directly before relying on any of this.