How to see a doctor in Spain

Getting medical help when you need it is one of the most crucial concerns for new expatriates and visitors to Spain. We're here to guide you through seeking emergency treatment, gaining access to specialists, and registering with a family doctor, to ensure all your needs are covered.

Residents in Spain are usually entitled to State healthcare, free at the point of use, depending upon their circumstances. If you are working for a company or registered as self-employed, you are automatically able to use the State health system. To find out if you qualify, take a look at our article Navigating Spain's national healthcare system

Visitors to Spain, including holiday-home owners, will need to take out health insurance cover before leaving their country of origin. Citizens of the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA), including Switzerland, can acquire a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which covers any treatment and prescriptions you need that cannot wait until you get home.

How to seek urgent healthcare

For immediate, pressing medical matters, you should go to your nearest accident and emergency department. Most towns have a 24-hour emergency unit at the local surgery, meaning you may not have to travel to your closest district hospital. These departments are called Urgencias. They do not just handle extreme and critical situations; Urgencias also deals with non-life-threatening situations that cannot wait until you can get an appointment with your family doctor.

If your situation is life-threatening, though, you should call the emergency number, 112, for an ambulance. This telephone number is free of charge, and available in different languages upon request.

Should you need to call an ambulance, do not be alarmed if the police arrive, too. The force based in your town, known as the Policía Local ('Local Police') are automatically sent out to medical emergencies – they are usually able to reach you faster than the ambulance, as they are typically closer, are first-aid trained, and often have defibrillators fitted in their patrol cars.

For routine medical attention, you will need to book an appointment with your local health centre, or Centro de Salud. To do so, you must be registered with a doctor there first.

What do you need to register at your local health centre?

You will need:

• A Social Security (Seguridad Social) number if you are either working or in receipt of a State pension from an EU/EEA country, or a spouse, cohabiting partner or immediate family member of someone in that situation. In the latter case, you are considered a 'dependant' of the other person's Social Security, and your number will be the same as theirs once you have registered with your nearest branch of the General Treasury for the Social Security (Tesorería General de la Seguridad Social, or TGSS). Find out here how the Social Security system works.
• To be registered on your town hall population census, or padrón, and obtain a certificate to prove this – known as a certificado de empadronamiento – which must not be more than three months old
• To apply for and obtain a NIE number.
• Your residence card, or TIE (for non-EU/EEA citizens).
• Your passport or a photo identification (ID) card from your home country (if you are an EU/EEA citizen).

Take these to your local Centro de Salud, where you will be signed up as a patient. You will then automatically be allocated a GP, or family doctor (médico de cabecera).

Additionally, you will be given a healthcare card. This includes your name, date of birth, and healthcare registration number, and you must present it whenever you attend or book medical appointments or collect prescriptions.

Getting medical care as a long-stay non-resident patient

As a holidaymaker in Spain, you do not need to register with a doctor – if you need medical attention, you would normally either book an appointment and show your EHIC or health insurance, or go to Urgencias if it is a more pressing matter. But holiday-home owners, visitors who plan to stay for several months without becoming resident in Spain, or those who split their lives between two or more locations in Spain, should indeed register with their Centro de Salud. The process is the same, but instead of a Social Security number, you produce your EHIC card. You will usually be given a temporary healthcare card, in paper or cardboard format, which has to be renewed periodically. Renewals are straightforward – simply hand in your old card at your health centre, and a new one will be printed out on site.

For non-EU/EEA citizens, you will be covered by your private health insurance. This means using private (non-State-run) clinics and hospitals. Your insurance company will direct you to the correct ones and explain how to register with them.

Booking an appointment with a family doctor

This can be done by telephone, in person at the reception desk or, in some of Spain's regions, online. In smaller towns or at non-main doctors' surgeries, appointments may only be offered in the mornings, and nearly all Centros de Salud are closed on weekends, public holidays, and between approximately 13.00 to 17.30 (or at least from 14.00 to 16.00). Emergency departments (Urgencias) at local medical practices, where they have them, are open 24 hours a day, even on weekends and holidays.

How to see a specialist medical consultant

You cannot book an appointment directly with specialists such as oncologists, cardiologists, psychiatrists, haematologists, and so on. You will need to arrange a visit with your family doctor and ask to be referred to the appropriate consultant. Once you are being treated by the consultant in question, however, any follow-up appointments will, indeed, be arranged with them directly, without the need to go through your family doctor.

If you are new to Spain and have little or no medical history here, you may find it helpful to bring your medical notes from your home country with you, plus details of any prescriptions you need regularly. State-run health services are rarely offered in foreign languages, although medical terms and the generic names of pharmaceutical drugs are very similar. Still, it would save time and confusion if you arrange to have any health-related paperwork translated into Spanish before showing them to your family doctor.

Spain's State healthcare system is very 'specialised', with little overlap between departments. This means a high amount of your care – including renewing or changing prescriptions – will be carried out by specialist consultants, and only preliminary examinations, blood tests, or prescribing of very common medications will take place in your family doctor's surgery. So, do not be alarmed if you are referred to hospital more frequently than you are used to in your home country.

What if you don't speak enough Spanish for medical conversations?

Even if you are already making good progress learning Spanish, you may not feel confident that you'll understand crucial health-related information, or be able to describe your situation to a doctor in detail. Language misunderstandings or ambiguity can be extremely harmful in a medical situation, so you should always take an interpreter with you unless you are capable of a fluent conversation and able to ask enough questions to ensure you fully comprehend your treatment options, test procedures, results and diagnoses.

Many regions in Spain have resident-run associations in place to support expatriates with health matters. Volunteers may be willing to accompany you for occasional or emergency appointments, or may be working directly for a hospital or doctors' surgery. For more frequent or on-demand doctor and hospital visits, these associations – or other, non-health-related expatriate social groups – will be able to recommend an interpreter to assist you for a fee. Typical costs range from a one-off day fee starting from about €30, through to an hourly rate of €15-20, to include waiting times and travel.

Your health is important to you, so you will want to be sure you can communicate properly with your doctor when you move to Spain. It's a good idea to learn some key words in advance, so you are more confident about using them should the need eventually arise. Take a look at some Helpful vocabulary for medical issues here.