How to Book a Hospital or Clinic Appointment Online in Taiwan (Plus Flu Shots and Vaccines)

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Hospital appointment Taiwan online, step by step: which Taipei hospitals accept ARC or passport bookings, which department to pick, copays, and flu shots.

Making a hospital appointment Taiwan online is easier than most newcomers expect, once you understand one thing: there is no GP gatekeeper here. You pick the department and often the exact doctor yourself, book a slot on the hospital website (網路掛號, wǎnglù guàhào), and show up with your ARC or passport and NHI card. This guide walks through the booking step by step, which big Taipei hospitals have usable English booking pages, how to choose a department, and where to get flu shots and other vaccines.

If you are still looking for an English-friendly doctor in general, start with finding an English-speaking doctor or dentist in Taipei. If you are not sure your insurance has kicked in yet, read NHI for foreigners first. This article is about the booking mechanics.

The main building of National Taiwan University Hospital on Zhongshan South Road in Taipei

Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

How the system works: clinic first, hospital when you need it

In Taiwan you can walk into almost any clinic (診所) or hospital department without a referral. The catch is the NHI copay. The basic outpatient copay is set by hospital level, and big medical centers charge the most if you show up without a referral:

On top of that you pay a registration fee (掛號費) that each hospital sets itself, usually around NT$100 to 200 at clinics and a bit more at medical centers, plus a small drug copay if you get medicine. A clinic visit for a cold typically costs a few hundred NT dollars in total.

Our pick: for colds, rashes, ear infections and anything routine, go to a neighborhood clinic. It is cheaper and usually faster. Book a medical center when you need a specialist, imaging, or a second opinion, and ask the clinic for a referral letter (轉診單) first if you can. It cuts the copay from NT$420 to NT$170.

Choosing the right department

Hospital booking pages list departments (科別), not "general practitioner". This table covers the ones foreigners use most:

If you genuinely do not know, pick 家醫科 (family medicine). That is the closest thing to a GP, and they will send you to the right specialist. TMUH's English site even has a "What would you like to address today" helper that suggests a department.

Hospital appointment Taiwan online: the big Taipei hospitals

Here is how the major hospitals actually work for foreigners, based on their booking pages:

Mackay Memorial Hospital main building on Zhongshan North Road, Taipei

Photo: Yu tptw via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Step by step for a first booking

1. Pick the department and look at the timetable (門診時間表). Clinics are split into morning (上午), afternoon (下午) and evening (夜間) sessions.

2. Click the doctor's slot and choose first visit (初診). Enter your ARC number or passport number, your birthday, and your name exactly as on your ARC.

3. Write down your number (看診號碼). That is your place in the queue, not a time.

4. If the form keeps rejecting you, try another browser, then give up and register in person. Volunteers (often older ladies in yellow vests) in the main hall help foreigners fill in forms all the time.

Your first visit: what happens at the counter

On a first visit (初診), go to the first-visit registration counter (初診櫃檯) before heading upstairs. Bring your ARC, passport if you do not have an ARC yet, and your NHI card. They create a patient record and give you a hospital card or number. After that, you insert your NHI card at the check-in kiosk on future visits.

Then go to the department waiting area and watch the number screens above each consulting room. Every hospital shows "current number" (目前看診號) on a display, and most let you check progress online, so on busy days you can book number 40, check the website from a café, and walk in when the screen reaches the 30s. Being early does not help: numbers go in order, but if you miss your call you usually get slotted back in a few patients later (過號).

Registration counters and number displays in the outpatient hall of a large Taiwanese teaching hospital

Photo: Craigbossley via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Phrases for the registration counter

Booking a clinic online

Neighborhood clinics rarely have English websites, but many now take bookings through a LINE official account or a booking app. Search the clinic on Google Maps: if it has a "Book" button or a LINE QR code on the listing, you can usually reserve a number and watch the queue live. 診所通 is one widely used app that covers clinic maps, booking and queue progress for participating clinics. No online booking? Just walk in; that is normal for clinics.

The NHI app: 健保快易通

Download 全民健保行動快易通 (NHI Express) and link it to your NHI card. It gives you a virtual NHI card QR code, a record of your visits, prescriptions and lab results (健康存摺, My Health Bank), and lets you check premium payments. Handy when a new doctor asks what medicine you take. The menus are mostly Chinese but simple.

Flu shots and other vaccines

Public-funded flu shots: Taiwan CDC's 2026 program started on October 1, with a record of about 7.05 million doses. Phase 1 covers people 65 and over, Indigenous people 55 and over, children from 6 months to pre-school, school students, pregnant women, high-risk chronic patients (including BMI 30 and above), medical staff, childcare workers and a few other groups. Phase 2, from November 2, adds healthy adults aged 50 to 64. If you have NHI and fall into one of these groups, the vaccine is free; you pay only the clinic registration fee.

Everyone else pays. If you are a healthy adult under 50, you self-pay. Forumosa posters report around NT$1,000 to 1,500 at neighborhood clinics and about NT$1,800 at Taipei City Hospital, depending on the brand, and it is one shot. Their advice matches ours: go to a local clinic, not a hospital. At a hospital you usually have to see a family medicine doctor first, who then "prescribes" the shot, which costs an extra queue. Calling 1999 (Taipei's city hotline) gets you a list of nearby clinics that have stock.

HPV and other self-paid vaccines: HPV (Gardasil 9) prices vary a lot between clinics, with foreigners reporting quotes from under NT$2,000 to around NT$7,000 per dose. Call two or three clinics and ask "九價HPV疫苗一劑多少錢？" (How much is one dose of the 9-valent HPV vaccine?). Students should check their university's affiliated hospital first, which sometimes offers a discount.

Travel vaccines: Taiwan CDC contracts around 32 travel medicine clinics (旅遊醫學門診) nationwide, including NTU Hospital and Mackay Memorial in Taipei. These are the places for yellow fever (with the yellow international certificate), meningococcal, typhoid and malaria pills. Everything there is self-paid, stock is limited, so phone ahead and bring your passport and NHI card.

The short version

Clinic for small things, NTUH or TMUH online for specialists, 家醫科 when in doubt, watch your queue number online, and get your flu shot at a neighborhood clinic.

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