HEALTH

Health Public and Private

The government provides free health care for locals, but tourists must pay a fee. If you are employed here, generally you are given health care as part of the package. There are two main public hospitals, Victoria Hospital and Anse Royal Hospital. These are both open 24h hours. I have not been, but have heard that they are fine, however you wait a very long time to be seen or to get tests done. They have a large contingent of Cuban trained doctors whom attend trainings in Singapore and abroad. Much of the equipment comes from the UAE. They are building a third hospital on Perservance which will be a day hospital only. There are plans to develop a hospital on La Digue as well. The private doctors are Dr Chetty, English River, Seychelles Family Hospitals, Lanka Hospitals, Panafricare, and Euro Medical.

It seems that when people are suffering from something very specific, they tend to go to Dubai or abroad for more in-depth health care. I have only been to Euro Medical which was clean, and we were quickly able to see a doctor as well as rapid processing of blood work and results. Next time, I would Panafricare as it has some good reviews from friends.  In terms of natural health care providers, this is definitely lacking. There is one Naturopathy clinic called Vitality which is located is at La Ciotat, Mont Fleuri, on Mahe Island. 

I was hoping there would be a lot more primal wisdom shared through local healers, and perhaps there is but I have yet to access it. The Seychellois used to receive care from people who were called guerriser to help heal using plants. However, I haven’t heard of anyone alive practicing this tradition. There is a small botanical park called Nature Seychelles where the plants that were cultivated there were thoughtfully appointed by a famous guerrsier who has since passed away. I asked the staff at Nature Seychelles if they know of anyone who still practices this tradition now and they did not. There are many useful plants here for health and well-being, and if you speak with the locals, they will often help you with what they know. For example, my daughter suffers from prickly heat and the locals emphasize drinking the fresh coconut and pouring coconut water on her as well as putting the flesh on her skin to help soothe and cool. They also recommend using cassava powder on the areas of her skin that area aggravated. I prefer to use local and natural remedies as much as we can so continue to learn as much as I can from the local people and hopefully, we’ll find a guerssier to learn even more. We will be doing a blog about the local plants and their uses so please check it out if you are interested. Within the same blog, there is some useful information regarding the local fruits and vegetables as they have lots of benefits for your health too! Lastly, there is a homeopathic doctor, Dr. Shah, located at the Station, Seychelles. She has been extremely useful and helpful for our well-being and we are grateful that there are homeopathic remedies available here.