How to see a doctor in Spain: centro de salud, médico de cabecera and urgencias

How Spanish public healthcare is organised

Primary care is the usual entry point and coordinates the case. Your health zone, address and regional capacity determine the centro de salud and assigned GP; children normally receive a paediatrician. A padrón can prove an address, but it does not itself create healthcare entitlement.

Check my healthcare access

A GP normally manages follow-up, prescriptions and referrals. Direct-access exceptions and appointment channels vary by autonomous community.

Urgent routes may be a centro de salud, an out-of-hours PAC/SUAP or a hospital. Call 112 for an emergency; some regions also use the health-coordination line 061. Urgencias triages by clinical severity, not arrival order.

Who can use it

• Access to the public system depends on recognised entitlement and the rules on public funding. Once recognised, the regional service makes it effective and normally documents it with a TSI (tarjeta sanitaria individual). SIP is a Valencian name/identifier, not the national name of every card.
• For a temporary EU stay, an EHIC covers medically necessary public care under EU rules; it is not a route for planned treatment or private care.
• A person without legal residence may use the Ley 16/2003 article 3 ter / RD 180/2026 procedure if its conditions are met. There is no minimum residence period: the application produces an immediate provisional document while entitlement is decided, and evidence other than a padrón is accepted where registration is unavailable.
• People without another public route may consider the paid convenio especial. It generally requires one continuous year of effective residence and a current padrón; the state fee is €60/month under 65 and €157/month from 65, and its benefit package is limited.

Your rights as a patient

• Once public entitlement is recognised, access to the common SNS portfolio under the applicable funding rules; the card documents access but is not the source of the substantive right.
• Immediate urgent assessment when the clinical situation requires it. Do not postpone urgent care to solve card paperwork; entitlement, insurance or another responsible payer can still matter to the final bill.
• Electronic prescriptions are collected through the interoperable system with a physical or virtual TSI. Tell an out-of-region pharmacy where the prescription was issued; not every product is interoperable and the system cannot be used without the card.
• You may request access to your clinical history, subject to the statutory limits, and request a GP or centre change under regional availability and procedure.

What you need to bring

• TSI, physical or virtual, or the temporary/provisional document proving entitlement; plus DNI/NIE/TIE or passport.
• Address or residence evidence requested by the regional service. Under RD 180/2026, lack of padrón can be addressed with alternatives such as social-services/qualified-NGO records, school enrolment, utility bills, consular registration or certain public-centre certificates.
• A current medication and allergy list, relevant reports and the appointment confirmation. Bring EHIC or insurer/coverage papers when that is your route.

From registering to seeing the doctor

1. Identify the entitlement route first: recognised public right, EU/international coverage, RD 180/2026 procedure, private insurance or paid convenio especial.
2. Ask the regional health service which centre covers your address and present the card or entitlement document plus the identity/address evidence it requests.
3. Confirm your assigned GP and paediatrician, where applicable, and book through the regional app, website, phone line or centre.
4. See primary care; the GP coordinates treatment and most specialist referrals.
5. Use the TSI for an interoperable e-prescription and tell a pharmacy outside the prescribing region where it was issued.
6. For a clinically urgent problem use the regional urgent route; call 112 for an emergency and 061 where the region operates it.

A real case: the GP suspected a TIA but did not escalate

Common mistakes

• Treating padrón, TSI and entitlement as the same thing.
• Using urgencias for a routine matter, or delaying a genuine emergency because the card is missing.
• Assuming every specialist accepts self-referral or every region uses the same app and 061 route.
• Assuming EHIC covers planned or private treatment, or that every prescription product works across regions.

Refused care or want to change doctor

• If necessary urgent care is refused, prioritise safety: call 112 or use the appropriate urgent service. Ask for a written record of the refusal and complain to the regional health service or patient-information unit, preserving date, place, symptoms and names.
• To change GP or centre, file the regional request and ask for a written answer. Choice is governed by regional procedure and capacity, not an unconditional national right to any centre.

Related guides

Key terms in this guide

Healthcare FAQ

Official sources