Before you start

Employment or residence permit
Employment contract, for employer-arranged medical aid
Records of pre-existing conditions and current medication
Vaccination records

Step-by-step

1
Join a medical aid scheme in week one
Employers of foreign professionals normally provide or subsidise one. Namibian schemes follow the South African model — benefit categories, annual limits, savings portions, pre-authorisation, waiting periods on joining and pre-existing condition exclusions.
Via employerWho: YouWeek 1
2
Check the air evacuation and rescue cover specifically
Ask what the scheme covers for aeromedical evacuation from remote areas, whether membership of a rescue service is included or separate, and what the annual limit is. In a country this size and this empty, this is the benefit that actually matters.
Via employerWho: You
3
Read the South African referral terms
Complex care — major cardiac, oncology, neurosurgery, some paediatrics — is frequently referred to South Africa. Confirm whether your scheme covers treatment there, whether pre-authorisation is needed and whether transport is included.
In personWho: You
4
Register with a Windhoek GP before you need one
Private practices cluster around the central hospitals and Klein Windhoek. Having a doctor who knows your history matters most at the moment a referral decision has to be made.
In personWho: YouMonth 1
5
Take the sun and the altitude seriously
Windhoek sits at about 1,700 metres with very low humidity and intense sun. Dehydration creeps up on people who do not feel hot because the sweat evaporates instantly, and skin cancer rates in southern Africa are high. Water, hat and sunscreen are daily infrastructure rather than holiday advice.
In personWho: You
6
Know the malaria geography
Windhoek and central Namibia are not malaria areas. The northern regions — Kavango, Zambezi, parts of Kunene and Oshana — are, particularly in and after the rainy season. Prophylaxis is a trip-by-trip decision here, not a permanent one, which is different from West Africa.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Medical aid membership card and benefit schedule
Rescue or evacuation service membership details
Employment or residence permit
Records of pre-existing conditions and prescriptions
Vaccination records

Things most newcomers don’t know

Air evacuation cover is the benefit that matters most, because of the geography rather than the medicine.

Namibia is the second least densely populated country on earth. A serious accident on a gravel road in Kunene or the Zambezi region is hundreds of kilometres and many hours from a hospital that can treat it, often with no mobile coverage at the scene. Aeromedical rescue membership and the scheme's evacuation cover are what convert that from a fatal problem into a survivable one. Check both, and put the number in your phone before your first long drive, not after.

Source: community-reported

Malaria here is regional and seasonal, unlike West Africa.

Windhoek and the central highlands are not malaria areas at all, while the northern regions — Kavango, Zambezi and parts of Kunene and Oshana — carry real risk that rises during and after the rains. That makes prophylaxis a decision you make per trip rather than a permanent regime, and it means a fever in Windhoek is very unlikely to be malaria. Newcomers from Lagos or Accra tend to over-generalise in one direction and holidaymakers heading north under-prepare in the other.

Source: community-reported; travel health guidance

Medical aid works like a South African scheme, which surprises people from national health systems.

Namibian schemes use the South African architecture: benefit categories with annual limits, a savings portion, pre-authorisation requirements for procedures, waiting periods on joining and explicit exclusions for pre-existing conditions. Anyone arriving from the UK, Scandinavia or Canada will find the structure unfamiliar and the exclusions consequential. Read the benefit schedule in week one while you can still choose a different plan.

Source: community-reported

The city drinks reclaimed water, and it has done since 1968.

Windhoek's Goreangab plant was the first in the world to take municipal wastewater directly to drinking water, running since 1968 and rebuilt in 2002. It supplies a substantial share of the city's water. It is safe, it is internationally studied, and it is also a permanent reminder of how tight the water position is — restrictions are a normal part of life here and residents pay attention to dam levels the way people elsewhere follow the weather.

Source: City of Windhoek; published research