Before you start

An Algerian employment contract, for CNAS affiliation
An international health policy including medical evacuation
Carte de résident
Your routine medication in sufficient quantity, with prescriptions

Step-by-step

1
Confirm CNAS affiliation with your employer
Affiliation to the CNAS is the employer's obligation for salaried workers and gives access to the public system and to reimbursement. Ask for confirmation in writing early rather than assuming it has happened.
Via employerWho: Your employerWeek 1
2
Read the evacuation clause in your employer's policy before you need it
For serious conditions, treatment abroad — commonly in Europe or Tunisia — is the realistic pathway, and getting there depends on your policy paying for an air transfer and on the receiving hospital accepting a guarantee. Check the limit, the exclusions and who authorises it. This is the clause that matters most and the one nobody reads.
Via employerWho: You
3
Identify a private clinic and a doctor early
Algiers has private clinics used by the professional and diplomatic community, concentrated in the same hillside communes as the housing. Find yours and register before you need it, and ask colleagues rather than searching.
In personWho: You
4
Bring your routine medication and the prescriptions
Specific brands and formulations are not reliably available, and import-substitution policy has changed which pharmaceuticals are on the market more than once. Bring a supply, bring the prescription in generic-name form, and establish early whether your regular medication has an Algerian equivalent.
In personWho: You
5
Ask your embassy what it does and does not do
Embassies in Algiers maintain lists of doctors and hospitals and can assist in an emergency, but they do not pay for treatment or repatriation. Registering with your embassy on arrival is a five-minute task that becomes valuable in exactly the situation you hope not to be in.
OnlineWho: You
6
Take the summer, the water and the driving seriously
The three things most likely to cause an actual problem for a newcomer in Algiers are heat in the inland summer, stomach upsets in the first weeks, and road traffic — Algerian roads are the genuine risk in this posting, not crime.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

CNAS affiliation number, for employees
International health policy with evacuation cover
Carte de résident
Prescriptions in generic-name form
Vaccination records

Things most newcomers don’t know

Medical evacuation cover is the clause that defines your healthcare position in Algeria.

For anything serious, the realistic pathway is treatment abroad, and that depends on a policy that will pay for an air transfer and issue a guarantee to a receiving hospital quickly. Employees assume their employer's policy covers it and frequently do not check the limit, the exclusions or who has authority to trigger it. This is a fifteen-minute read that determines the worst day of a posting.

Source: community-reported

Bring your medication and the generic name, not the brand.

Pharmaceutical availability in Algeria has been shaped by successive import-substitution policies, and which specific formulations are on the market has changed more than once. A prescription written with a brand name may be unfillable; the same drug under its international non-proprietary name usually is. Bring a supply for the transition and establish the Algerian equivalent before you run out.

Source: community-reported

The road is the risk, not the street.

Foreign residents consistently report that Algiers feels ordinary in terms of personal security and genuinely hazardous in terms of driving — heavy traffic on hillside roads, mixed driving standards, and long inter-city routes. The safety precaution that actually matters here is about vehicles, seatbelts and not driving unfamiliar roads at night, rather than about neighbourhoods.

Source: community-reported

CNAS affiliation is real cover and is not what you will actually use.

Salaried workers are affiliated to the CNAS and the public system is free at the point of use, but it is under significant strain and foreign professionals overwhelmingly use private clinics and employer policies. Both things are true: the affiliation matters legally and for contribution history, and it is not the answer to 'where do I go when my child is ill'. Set up the private route in parallel rather than instead.

Source: CNAS; community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Assuming an employer policy includes medical evacuation without reading the clause.
Arriving with a month's medication and a brand-name prescription.
Treating CNAS affiliation as your practical healthcare arrangement.
Not registering with your embassy on arrival.
Underestimating road risk relative to every other hazard here.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.