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臺北榮民總醫院
Show a driver 臺北榮民總醫院, or say “Rong-zong”. Shipai station on the red Tamsui–Xinyi line, about twenty minutes north of Taipei Main Station, with a free hospital shuttle from the station.
Commonly shortened to 榮總 (Rong-zong) or 北榮 (Bei-rong).
- TypePublic — national hospital run by the Veterans Affairs Council, treating the general public as well as veterans
- BedsAbout 2,739
- AddressNo. 201, Sec. 2, Shipai Road, Beitou District, Taipei City 112201
- Switchboard+886 2 2871 2121
- Emergency department+886 2 2875 7371
- International Medical Service Center+886 2 2875 7808
- Emailimsc@vghtpe.gov.tw
- Websitevghtpe.gov.tw
- HoursEmergency department open 24 hours, seven days a week, with no appointment needed
- LanguagesInternational Medical Service Center with English-speaking coordinators, a counter in the outpatient building and email answered around the clock
- On the mapOpen in Google Maps
A national hospital run by the Veterans Affairs Council, founded in 1958 and open to everyone, not only to veterans. It is the biggest thing on this list by some distance — about 2,700 open beds, some 7,000 staff and more than 20,000 patients a day — and its International Medical Service Center is the most complete in the city, with a counter you can walk up to and an email address answered at any hour.
What it is known for
Scale, and a properly organised front door for foreigners. The Shipai campus runs to thirty hectares and around 2,700 open beds, with 183 in intensive care, a burn unit, a bone-marrow transplant unit and seven branch hospitals elsewhere in Taiwan. The International Medical Service Center keeps a counter on the first floor of the first outpatient building and an office on the fourth, and handles appointments, treatment coordination, written cost estimates, visa paperwork and someone to accompany you through the visit. It also publishes its emergency-room load live, which is a rare and genuinely useful thing to check before setting off.
Who it suits
Anything serious, anything complicated, and any planned treatment where you want the arrangements made in English before you arrive. The International Medical Service Center is open Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 12:00 and 13:30 to 17:30, and answers email at any hour. If you are staying in the north of the city, or in Beitou for the hot springs, it is also simply the nearest large hospital. It suits a walk-in emergency less well than the three hospitals further south, not because the emergency room is any harder to use — it takes walk-ins around the clock with no appointment — but because it is twenty minutes up the line from where most visitors sleep.
Cost and insurance
As everywhere in Taiwan, a visitor pays in full and the full amount is comparatively low. The international centre quotes its remote consultation at NT$7,000 for up to half an hour, which gives a sense of the private-service end of the scale; ordinary emergency and outpatient care costs a good deal less. Patients who do hold Taiwanese health insurance are routed to a different department entirely, so say at the outset that you are a foreign visitor without cover. Ask for an itemised receipt and an English diagnosis certificate before you leave, and expect a deposit if you are admitted.
Getting there
Shipai station on the red Tamsui–Xinyi line is the stop, nine stations and roughly twenty minutes north of Taipei Main Station on a single train with no changes, for about NT$25. The hospital runs a free shuttle bus from the station, which is the easy way to cover the last stretch; on foot it is a little under a kilometre. The emergency room is on the first floor of the Chung-Cheng Building. If the situation is urgent, call 119 and let the crew decide where you go rather than making the journey yourself.
Details checked against the hospital’s own website, September 2026. Call before a non-urgent visit; in an emergency call 119 or the hospital’s own emergency line above. Travel information, not medical advice.
The other 3 hospitals in Taipei
- National Taiwan University HospitalPublic, about 2,100 beds, Zhongshan S. Road, by NTU Hospital MRT.
- MacKay Memorial Hospital TaipeiPrivate, about 900 beds, Zhongshan N. Road, by Shuanglian MRT.
- Taipei Medical University HospitalPrivate, about 800 beds, Wuxing Street, Xinyi.