How care works here
Where to go for care
Health services in Timor-Leste are organised in tiers, and each one refers you onward when you need more than it can give. Starting at the right place saves you a journey.
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Your SISCa post
Integrated Community Health Services — the monthly health day held in villages and hamlets across the country, including Atauro. The closest health contact most families have.
- Weighing and growth checks for babies and young children
- Routine immunisation days
- Antenatal check-ups and family-planning advice
- First contact and referral onwards when something needs more care
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Health centre
Community health centres and health posts staffed through the municipal health services — open on regular days, with nurses, midwives and visiting doctors.
- Everyday consultations and follow-up care
- Maternal and child health services
- Medicines dispensed from the facility stock
- Referral to a regional hospital when needed
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Regional hospital
The referral hospitals serving groups of municipalities, with inpatient beds, a laboratory and the capacity for common surgery.
- Admission and inpatient treatment
- Common surgery, including caesarean delivery
- Laboratory tests and imaging
- Emergency care beyond what a health centre can handle
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National hospital, Dili
The national referral hospital — the top of the referral chain for the whole country, and the specialist centre the regional hospitals refer into.
- Specialist consultations and complex surgery
- Intensive care
- Cases referred upward from regional hospitals
This describes how the national health service is organised. It is not medical advice, and it cannot tell you which tier is right for a particular problem — a health worker decides that.