Social welfare & health

Social services

The municipality provides social and child welfare services as well as services for people with disabilities.
Regular services include social counseling on rights, support in working out personal problems or discomfort, financial support, both in form of grants and advice on financial issues, housing subsidies and special housing benefits as well as rental apartments provided by the municipality.

Child protection

Municipality social workers cooperate with the schools on preventive measures regarding child protection and welfare and offer parent counceling and parental classes to help families with difficult issues in their childrens upbringing.
By law everyone has an obligation to contact the proper authorities, in this case the municipality, if there is suspicion that a child is neglected, it suffers from harassment or violence or it endangers its own health and development with behaviour such as substance abuse or criminal activity.
During office hours the municipality social workers can be contacted by phone through 4 700 700 but in case of emergency during all hours the national emergency number is 112.

People with disabilities

The municipality also offers services for people with disabilites depending on the needs of each individual, varying from comlete assistance in every aspect of life to minimal administrative work in the case of people with disabilites that are otherwise fully able to manage their own affairs.

The elderly

The municipality offers transportation and home care for those elderly people in need of it and also day care for the elderly in connection with the community center Hlymsdalir. There are various art and craft groups, workshops and courses to choose from, or you can come there to play cards or take part in other activity organized by the local elders association.
The municipality also owns and operates the housing company Ársalir which offers rental apartments for elderly clients and has an agreement with the local health administration about the latter operating the nursing home Dyngja.

Health care

Heilbrigðisstofnun Austurlands (HSA) is local health administration unit that provides health care services in East Iceland. In Egilsstaðir HSA operates a general health clinic (heilsugæslan), physical therapy, certain limited hospital services and the nursing home Dyngjan.
In the health clinic you can get appointments with general practicing doctors and nurses. Specialists in certain fields of medicine also visit regularly for a few days at a time. Health checks of expecting mothers and young children are also done at the health clinic. Appointments through phone or at the reception desk during office hours.
Urgent medical advice can also be sought through the phone by dialling 1700. There you can get general assistance and depending on the situation staff may connect you with the on call doctor. In case of emergency you should however always call the emergency number 112.
Fjórðungssjúkrahúsið í Neskaupstað (FSN) is the district hospital of East Iceland and is located in Neskaupstaður. FSN has the only maternity ward in East Iceland, wards for recovering patients and a operating theatre where surgery can be done in general anaesthesia.

Heilsugæslan á Egilsstöðum
Street address: Lagarás 17-19
Phone: 4703000
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 8:00 – 16:00
For urgent medical advice dial 1700 - In case of emergency dial 112

Dental health

Dental clinics in Iceland are privately operated but some of them offer dental examinations for children based on contracts with the Social Insurance Administration. In Egilsstaðir there is one dental clinic.

Tannlæknastofan Egilsstöðum
Street adress: Miðgarður 13
Phone: 4711430
Emergency number: 8683514

Medication

In Egilsstaðir there is a pharmacy that sells both over the counter and prescription medicines.

Lyfja Egilsstöðum
Street address: Kaupvangur 6 (Nettó supermarket)
Phone: 4711273
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10:00 – 18:00 Saturdays 10:00 – 14:00