Tim S.

We recently traveled to Madeira for a medium rated activity level trip. Our guide was fantastic, providing enthusiastic and knowledgable information about the natural features and flora of the region as well as sociological and political contexts of present day life on the island.

Unfortunately, my wife became ill the morning of our scheduled return flight to Lisbon, from where we were to make connections to fly home (U.S.). Our guide was extremely helpful and communicative regarding our circumstances, but the process he was instructed to use to support us in this situation was seriously flawed.

He gave us an 8 page Road Scholar instruction sheet outlining the process by which we would be covered for expenses of our delayed and rebooked travel. The process is administered by something called "On Call." It turns out that this outfit is the same as "Emergency Assistance Plus", a travel insurance company.

We were required to seek medical care and have the attending physician fill out FOUR of the pages (in English) with results of medical examination, including vital signs, blood test results and a medical diagnosis. One form was essentially an affidavit requiring the physician to assert that the patient was unfit to travel. All four required signatures, email and telephone contact numbers.

Our guide advised us to go to the local public hospital emergency room, which we did. The situation at the hospital was chaotic to the point of nightmarish. My wife on a gurney with an I. V. in a hallway with other patients, most of whom were in much more serious medical issues. We observed one poor soul not 5 feet away who suffered a seizure and was bleeding from his mouth, probably from biting his tongue. It took fully 5 minutes before any medical staff intervened and attempted to navigate his gurney through the maze of other beds in the hallway.

Needless to say, the likelihood of ever even being examined by a Dr., let alone having him fill out a 4 page form, was an impossibility. We left the facility and ultimately made our own arrangements for return travel to the U.S. at considerable $ expense to us.

Upon contacting "On Call" upon our return, their response was to again send us the Road Scholar 8 page form originally presented to us. It seems that it is necessary now to get a Portuguese doctor whom we never saw and who didn't examine my wife to my wife to provide 4 pages of information from our home in Colorado.

We admit to our naivety in going to a public hospital in a foreign country, but given that many Road Scholar trips take place abroad, the process they've contracted for through "On Call"/Emergency Assistance Plus is a joke. We were hung out to dry with zero returned communication for hours. The communication we received was useless at best, and if it weren't so insulting, it could be considered ironic.