Getting sick on holiday in the Canary Islands: step by step
A feverish night, a bad step on the rocks, a cut that gets infected: nobody wants to see a doctor on holiday, but if you have to, it helps to know how healthcare works in the Canary Islands. In this article we go through what to do, step by step, based on official information. If you want to read about insurance, we covered it in this article: Do I need travel insurance for the Canary Islands?. If you are moving here, you can read about the local health card here: The Canarian health card.
The most important thing: ask for public healthcare
Before anything else: the islands have both public and private healthcare, and it is not always obvious which one you are in. According to the European Commission:
The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is only accepted in the public system. Before you see a doctor or go to a hospital, make sure they are part of the public healthcare system.
Some hospitals and health centres offer both, and it is up to the patient to say which one they want. The phrase worth remembering: "asistencia sanitaria pública", or "asistencia del Sistema Nacional de Salud" (public healthcare under Spain's National Health System).
If you are asked to pay upfront, it is no longer public healthcare, and your EHIC will not be accepted there.
Hotels and tour operators sometimes call or recommend a private doctor, who will charge you a fee.
Hungary's national health insurer (NEAK) adds in its general EHIC information that in holiday resorts popular with tourists, doctors mostly work in private practice. The cost of private care is not covered by the EHIC, and it is not refunded either.
Step 1: if a life is at risk, call 112
You can call 112 anywhere in the archipelago and in the surrounding waters, free of charge, from a landline or a mobile, 24 hours a day. Operators answer in person in five languages (Spanish, English, Italian, French and German); for other languages the operator brings in a remote interpreter, so in total they can help in 50 languages. You can also send text, photos and video from the 112Canarias app.
The operator will ask where you are calling from, what has happened, how many people are affected, what state they are in, whether there is a landmark nearby, and whether any emergency service is already on the scene. Help is already on its way while you answer, and if needed, a doctor or nurse from the Canary Islands emergency service (SUC) joins the call to help you over the phone. Ambulance transport is free when it is provided by a public healthcare provider. We wrote about safety on the islands in general here: Canary Islands safety, island by island.
Step 2: if it is not life-threatening, go to primary care urgent care
The Canary Islands health service (SCS) sums up its campaign in one simple line: if you need it, go to primary care urgent care first. According to the SCS, these urgent care points are easier to reach, faster and closer to the people who need them. They are called PAC (punto de atención continuada) or SNU (servicio normal de urgencias), and on the SCS map they are marked with a "U", together with their opening hours.
Except for medicines, public healthcare is free with no co-payment: primary care, specialist care, hospital and emergency care. Dental treatment, on the other hand, is generally not available in the public system, except in very exceptional acute cases. You will also find dentists among our health listings, but these are private practices.
Step 3: hospital and emergency department
According to the information from one SCS hospital, you should go to the hospital emergency department if your doctor considers it necessary, if the problem cannot be solved at the health centre, or if your health suddenly gets seriously worse. In the emergency department, the order is decided by severity, not by arrival: if someone arrives after you but is in a more serious condition, they will be seen first.
When you are admitted to hospital, bring your original EHIC and your ID; the hospital makes a photocopy of the card. You have to show your EHIC on admission, otherwise you will be charged as a private patient. When you leave, you get a discharge report (informe de alta).
Step 4: medicine and prescriptions
The discharge report is not a prescription. If you need medicine after hospital, it is listed in the discharge report, but you can only get it with a prescription: take the report to a health centre (centro de salud), where a doctor will write one.
Medicine is not free. For subsidised medicines prescribed in the public system, you pay part of the price yourself. Sources give different figures for this co-payment, so we do not quote one.
A prescription from a public-system doctor can be filled at any pharmacy. According to the German liaison body (DVKA), a Spanish prescription is valid for ten days from the date it is issued.
Your e-prescription from home probably will not work. In the Canary Islands, EU e-prescriptions can only be filled from countries that are already able to do this, with photo ID (the EHIC does not count), and you pay the full price of the medicine. On the Spanish Ministry of Health map of 19 August 2026, Hungary and Germany are still only "in testing", while Austria is already among the countries where it works. If you take medication regularly, bring a paper prescription or enough supply.
The duty pharmacy
At night and at weekends, a duty pharmacy (farmacia de guardia) stays open. Under the Canary Islands pharmacy law, every pharmacy has to display the list of the nearest duty pharmacies on its front, so you will find it on the door of the nearest closed pharmacy too. The duty pharmacy often serves you through a small hatch, so you do not even have to go in. You can also search online: the search tool of the Las Palmas College of Pharmacists (Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura) has a separate filter for duty pharmacies, and the Tenerife college has its own "Farmacias de Guardia" page. You will also find pharmacies among our listings.
If you do not have your EHIC, or you were treated privately
You cannot be refused treatment, but you may have to pay upfront and claim the money back at home.
If your card is lost or stolen, your home health insurer can send you a provisional replacement certificate by email or fax. In Hungary, for example, if the new card cannot be issued straight away, the government office issues a free temporary card replacement form, valid for 90 days.
Ask for an itemised invoice. According to the German liaison body, you need a receipted invoice that lists every service and its price separately. If you paid out of pocket for a medicine prescribed electronically, you have to ask separately for the paper copy, because you need it for the refund.
One example, insurance from Hungary (NEAK): the invoice and proof of payment must be submitted to the government office for the place of residence within six months of the treatment. The refund is what the treatment would have cost with the card, and you pay the difference.
If you become unable to work: for Hungarian sick pay you have to ask the doctor treating you in Spain for a certificate of incapacity for work, and people insured in Germany need form P.9 from a public-system doctor.
Both NEAK and the German Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) recommend travel insurance, especially for repatriation and private medical care. If you need regular treatment (dialysis, oxygen therapy, chemotherapy), the European Commission says you have to arrange and book it before you travel.
In short, to save on your phone
Life-threatening: 112.
Everything else: primary care urgent care (PAC, SNU), marked "U" on the SCS map.
Always say: "asistencia sanitaria pública", and show your EHIC.
If they ask you to pay upfront, it is private care.
After hospital, go to a health centre for your prescription.
Duty pharmacy: it is posted on the door of the nearest pharmacy.
Sources: 112 Canarias (112canarias.com) and the Canary Islands Government's press releases on 112; Servicio Canario de la Salud (SCS) and Servicio de Urgencias Canario (SUC); European Commission, EHIC in Spain; Your Europe; NEAK (Hungary's national health insurer), general EHIC information; DVKA (2026-02-01); Auswärtiges Amt; Ley 4/2005 de Ordenación Farmacéutica de Canarias (BOE); Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Las Palmas and Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Ministerio de Sanidad (e-prescriptions, 2026-08-19); AEMPS.
Cover photo (cropped): the Centro de Salud Mazo, La Palma. Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
