How to See a Doctor in the Canary Islands as a Tourist

How to See a Doctor in the Canary Islands as a Tourist?

Quick answer: If you face a life-threatening emergency, call 112 immediately. For non-emergency illness, visitors can use public health centres (PAC/SNU) with an EHIC or UK GHIC, attend a private clinic at their own expense, or book a video consultation. If you do not have cover, public centres charge set government rates. For non-emergencies, you can see a doctor in English from your accommodation without travelling to a clinic.

UrgentDoc provides an accessible alternative for travelers needing prompt care. You can see an English-speaking doctor online in Tenerife or from your accommodation on any island. The patient books a video consultation with one of our licensed doctors, from wherever they are staying. The doctors speak English, and consultation fees are shown clearly on the doctor's offer before you choose a time and pay.

Disclaimer: The information provided in this guide is for informational purposes only and does not replace professional medical evaluation, diagnosis, or treatment from a licensed healthcare provider.

What Are Your Healthcare Options in the Canary Islands?

When you fall ill while visiting Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, or Fuerteventura, understanding your options helps you avoid unexpected bills and long waits. Medically necessary state healthcare in Spain operates through the public system, but private providers and telemedicine services offer alternative pathways depending on your circumstances.

Route	Wait	What you pay	Language	Prescription
112 (life-threatening emergencies)	Call any time	The call is free	Spanish, English, German, Italian, French; interpreter for others (Gobierno de Canarias Dirección General de Emergencias, Gobierno de Canarias Portal de Noticias)	-
Public urgent care point (PAC/SNU) or hospital emergency department	Varies	Free with an EHIC or UK GHIC, except prescription medicines; without cover, the SCS's public prices (European Commission, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance, Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 178)	Varies	Public prescription
Private clinic, or a doctor your hotel calls	Varies	The clinic's fee; EHIC and GHIC not accepted (European Commission, GOV.UK Travel Advice Spain)	Varies	Private prescription
UrgentDoc video consultation	You choose a time from doctors' offers	Fee shown on the doctor's offer before you pay; medicine paid at the pharmacy	English	Private electronic prescription (PDF by email) if the doctor decides it is appropriate

How Does Public Healthcare Work for Tourists with an EHIC or GHIC?

If you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) from an EU country, or a UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) or UK-issued EHIC, you can get medically necessary state healthcare in Spain - the Canary Islands included - on the same basis as people insured in Spain (European Commission, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance). Under the social security coordination protocol of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom, UK tourists have healthcare cover in Spain when showing a UK EHIC or GHIC (Ministerio de Sanidad).

However, the card only works with the public system. It does not cover private healthcare, and it is not a substitute for travel insurance - it does not pay to fly you home (European Commission, European Union Your Europe, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance). The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office notes that travel insurance remains essential because reciprocal cards do not cover repatriation, ongoing travel adjustments, or private hospital admissions (GOV.UK Travel Advice Spain).

What Is the Private Care Trap in Hotels?

A common pitfall occurs when unwell holidaymakers ask hotel reception to summon medical help. Hotels and tour operators might sometimes call or recommend a private doctor, who will charge you; your EHIC or GHIC will not be accepted there (European Commission, GOV.UK Travel Advice Spain).

Some Spanish medical centres offer both private healthcare and state-provided care, leaving it up to the patient to specify which service they want (European Commission). If you are asked to pay upfront, you are not being treated in the public system and your card is not being accepted. Ask for "asistencia sanitaria pública" (public healthcare) (European Commission).

Because the EHIC and GHIC do not cover private healthcare, you pay for a private consultation yourself - including a video consultation with UrgentDoc (European Union Your Europe, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance).

Where Should You Go for Public Urgent Care in the Canaries?

If you need in-person care for an urgent health problem that is not a life-threatening emergency, you should avoid going straight to a major hospital emergency department. For urgent problems, the Canary health service asks people to go first to its primary-care urgent services - out-of-hospital urgent care points called PAC (puntos de atención continuada) or SNU (servicios normales de urgencias), based at health centres (Servicio Canario de la Salud 2018 Campaign).

The SCS's online map of health centres marks these points with a "U" and shows their opening hours (Servicio Canario de la Salud 2018 Campaign). In 2018, the health authority described this network as comprising 75 points spread across the archipelago to provide accessible urgent care (Servicio Canario de la Salud 2018 Campaign).

A 2010 patient guide from a Canary public hospital says the staff at a health centre's urgent care service can deal with many urgent problems, and send you on to hospital with a report if you need hospital care (Servicio Canario de la Salud Hospital Dr. Negrín). Seeking primary urgent care first helps patients avoid unnecessary travel and hospital queues (Servicio Canario de la Salud Hospital Dr. Negrín).

How Much Does It Cost to See a Doctor Without Healthcare Cover?

If you do not hold a valid EHIC, GHIC, or replacement certificate, seeing a doctor in the public healthcare system is not free. Spain's Ministry of Health confirms that foreign visitors who do not show a valid national card or British entitlement documentation may be charged by the public system for services provided (Ministerio de Sanidad).

The Canary Islands health service (Servicio Canario de la Salud, SCS) publishes the prices it charges patients who are not covered by Spanish Social Security (Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 178, Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 123). These official public rates apply to primary care and hospital services.

Canary Islands Public Health Service (SCS) Standard Charges (from 4 September 2026)

Service Description	SCS Spanish Description	Code	Public Price (€)
Emergency attendance at hospital	Urgencia	1.1.2	€249.11
First primary-care consultation	Primera consulta (Atención Primaria)	2.1.1	€72.71
Follow-up primary-care consultation	Consultas sucesivas (Atención Primaria)	2.1.2	€31.48
One day in hospital	Estancia/día	1.1.1	€732.32

These are the SCS's public prices, not a full bill and not private-clinic fees. The list has no separate price for an urgent visit at a PAC or SNU (Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 178). Additional diagnostics, imaging, special techniques, and outpatient medications are billed separately on top of basic consultation fees (Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 123). Furthermore, an emergency stay of more than 12 hours counts as a full day in hospital (€732.32) (Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 178, Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 123).

If you have neither card - for example, if you live outside Europe - ask what you will be charged before you are treated, and check what your travel insurance covers.

Can You See an English-Speaking Doctor Online on Each Island?

When staying in holiday apartments or resort hotels, finding an English-speaking practitioner locally can take hours. If your condition is non-urgent, UrgentDoc provides video consultations across the archipelago.

Patients can consult with our licensed doctors from their hotel rooms:

Connect with an online doctor in Lanzarote if you are unwell in Playa Blanca, Puerto del Carmen, or Costa Teguise.
Schedule a consultation with an online doctor in Gran Canaria from Las Palmas, Maspalomas, or Playa del Inglés.
Access an online doctor in Fuerteventura while staying in Corralejo, Caleta de Fuste, or Morro Jable.
Connect with an online doctor in Tenerife from anywhere across the northern or southern municipal zones.

Our doctors speak English and assess your symptoms via video. You pay two things: the consultation fee, shown on the doctor's offer before you pay, and the pharmacy's price for any medicine. If the doctor determines that you need an in-person physical assessment or testing, they will advise you to visit a public urgent care point or hospital emergency department.

How Do Prescriptions Work for Tourists in the Canary Islands?

Spanish pharmacy laws strictly regulate how treatments are dispensed to tourists. Spain classes every medicine as prescription-only or non-prescription. A pharmacist may only dispense a prescription-only medicine against a prescription; doing otherwise is a serious offence under Spanish law (Agencia Estatal BOE Ley de Garantías).

Non-prescription medicines are meant for conditions that do not need a precise diagnosis, and the pharmacist advises you on how to use them (Agencia Estatal BOE Ley de Garantías). For any condition requiring prescription-only treatment, presenting an authorised document is mandatory.

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|               SPANISH PHARMACY DISPENSING PATHWAYS                |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                   |
|  [Spanish Prescription]                                           |
|         │                                                         |
|         ▼                                                         |
|  Valid across Spain; pharmacist checks validity and dispenses.    |
|                                                                   |
|  [Prescription from another EU Country]                           |
|         │                                                         |
|         ▼                                                         |
|  Dispensed if medicine is authorised in Spain & carries mandatory |
|  prescriber/patient data; pharmacist must not have doubts.        |
|                                                                   |
|  [UK, US, or Non-EU Prescription]                                 |
|         │                                                         |
|         ▼                                                         |
|  No Spanish recognition route exists. New consultation needed.    |
|                                                                   |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

A Spanish prescription, public or private, is valid throughout Spain, the Canary Islands included. The pharmacist checks it and will not dispense if there are reasonable doubts about its authenticity or validity (Agencia Estatal BOE Ley de Garantías, Agencia Estatal BOE Real Decreto Receta Médica).

A prescription issued in another EU country can be dispensed in Spain if the medicine is authorised here and the prescription carries the required details, though the pharmacist may still refuse if in reasonable doubt (Agencia Estatal BOE Real Decreto Receta Médica). Required elements include full patient and prescriber identification details, prescriber contact information with international calling codes, and generic product dosing specifics (Agencia Estatal BOE Real Decreto Receta Médica).

Spain's rule for prescriptions from other EU countries does not cover UK or US prescriptions, so you need a new prescription - for example, a Spanish one (Agencia Estatal BOE Real Decreto Receta Médica).

If you take maintenance treatments and discover you have run out, lost, or forgotten your supply while traveling, you can renew a regular prescription online. If the doctor decides a prescription is appropriate, you receive a private electronic prescription as a PDF by email, issued through a private e-prescription platform such as REMPe. Show the PDF at a pharmacy; the pharmacist checks it before dispensing.

If you fall ill shortly before your flight home and need official documentation for your airline, you can obtain a fit-to-fly certificate based on an assessment by our doctors.

How Do You Find a Pharmacy Open at Night?

If you require medication outside typical shop hours, emergency coverage is mandated across the archipelago. Outside normal opening hours, pharmacies take turns on duty (farmacia de guardia). A pharmacy on duty shows a lit sign outside, as a rule the pharmacy cross, and may serve you through a hatch or window. Every pharmacy that is not on duty must post the address and phone number of the nearest duty pharmacies on its front, and say whether each is open in the daytime or for 24 hours (Agencia Estatal BOE Ley de Farmacia de Canarias, Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 100).

Duty shifts require a pharmacist to be on the premises, although in rare cases an on-call service (guardia localizada) is permitted where the pharmacist must arrive within 15 minutes of a call (Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 100).

The pharmacists' colleges of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas both publish online searches for duty pharmacies; the Las Palmas search has an English version (Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Las Palmas).

When to Seek Urgent In-Person Care: Red Flags and 112

In a life-threatening emergency, call 112 - do not go to a health centre first and do not book a video consultation (Servicio Canario de la Salud Hospital Dr. Negrín).

112 is free to call and works 24 hours a day across the Canary Islands. Its call-takers answer in Spanish, English, German, Italian and French, and connect an interpreter for other languages (Gobierno de Canarias Dirección General de Emergencias, Gobierno de Canarias Portal de Noticias). A doctor from the Canary emergency service (SUC) works in the 112 coordination room and can join the call to give instructions (Gobierno de Canarias Dirección General de Emergencias, Gobierno de Canarias Portal de Noticias).

Call 112 in any situation where a life may be in danger. Spanish public health guidance gives these examples (Junta de Castilla y León Consejería de Sanidad):

Traffic or work accidents
Suspected stroke
Difficulty breathing
Chest pain
Poisoning
Loss of consciousness
Major bleeding
Severe burns
A severe allergic reaction

On the 112 call, answer the call-taker's questions, follow the instructions you are given and do not hang up until you are told to (Junta de Castilla y León Consejería de Sanidad).

Our doctors cannot examine you physically, run tests or handle emergencies. If our doctor thinks you need to be examined or tested in person, they will tell you to go to a public urgent care point or a hospital emergency department.

What to Have Ready Before You Seek Medical Care

Having your documentation organized speeds up care whether you visit a clinic or arrange a consultation online.

Route	What to Have Ready
Public Urgent Care (PAC/SNU or Hospital)	• Passport or photo ID card (Servicio Canario de la Salud BOC núm. 038) • Valid EHIC, UK GHIC, or Provisional Replacement Certificate (Servicio Canario de la Salud BOC núm. 038) • Address in your home country or temporary address (Servicio Canario de la Salud BOC núm. 038) • Contact phone number (Servicio Canario de la Salud BOC núm. 038)
UrgentDoc Video Consultation	• Details of your symptoms and when they started • List of medicines you currently take and known allergies • Passport, DNI, or NIE number (required to issue an official prescription) • The island and town where you are staying

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to see a doctor in Tenerife as a tourist?

For card holders, public healthcare in Spain is free, except prescription medicines: you pay part of their price (UK visitors pay 50%, or 10% with a UK State Pension, and these charges are non-refundable) (European Commission, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance). From 4 September 2026, the Canary Islands health service charges uninsured patients official public prices, including €249.11 for an emergency hospital attendance and €72.71 for a first primary-care consultation, though these do not represent private clinic fees (Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 178). Private clinics establish their own independent fees. With UrgentDoc, you pay two things: the consultation fee, shown on the doctor's offer before you pay, and the pharmacy's price for any medicine.

Can I use my GHIC or EHIC in the Canary Islands?

Yes. If you have a European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) from an EU country, or a UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) or UK-issued EHIC, you can get medically necessary state healthcare in Spain - the Canary Islands included - on the same basis as people insured in Spain (European Commission, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance). The card only works with the public system. It does not cover private healthcare, and it is not a substitute for travel insurance - it does not pay to fly you home (European Commission, European Union Your Europe, GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance).

Can I see an English-speaking doctor in Lanzarote?

Our doctors speak English and see you by video wherever you are staying on the island. If you face a life-threatening emergency, 112 is free to call, operates 24 hours a day across the Canary Islands, and call-takers answer directly in English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian (Gobierno de Canarias Dirección General de Emergencias, Gobierno de Canarias Portal de Noticias).

What happens if I don't have my EHIC or GHIC with me?

An EU citizen without their card cannot be refused necessary treatment, but may have to pay upfront and claim the money back at home (European Union Your Europe). A 2010 instruction from the Canary health service says a visitor who cannot show the card is given 15 days to provide it, after which the care is billed (Servicio Canario de la Salud BOC núm. 038). Without a GHIC, UK-issued EHIC or Provisional Replacement Certificate, UK visitors may need to pay in full, as Spain's Ministry of Health notes visitors unable to prove cover may be charged for care (GOV.UK Visiting Spain Guidance, Ministerio de Sanidad). If you have neither card - for example, if you live outside Europe - ask what you will be charged before you are treated, and check what your travel insurance covers.

How do I get a prescription in Lanzarote or Tenerife?

Spain classes every medicine as prescription-only or non-prescription, and a pharmacist may only dispense a prescription-only medicine against a valid prescription (Agencia Estatal BOE Ley de Garantías). Spain's recognition rule for EU prescriptions does not cover UK or US prescriptions, so visitors holding these need a new Spanish prescription (Agencia Estatal BOE Real Decreto Receta Médica). If the doctor decides a prescription is appropriate, you receive a private electronic prescription as a PDF by email, issued through a private e-prescription platform such as REMPe, which you present to a dispensing pharmacist.

How do I find a pharmacy open at night in the Canary Islands?

Outside normal opening hours, pharmacies take turns on duty (farmacia de guardia), displaying a lit pharmacy cross, and every pharmacy not on duty must display the address and telephone details of the nearest open daytime or 24-hour service (Agencia Estatal BOE Ley de Farmacia de Canarias, Gobierno de Canarias BOC núm. 100). In addition, the pharmacists' colleges of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas publish online search tools to find duty chemists, with an English interface available for the province of Las Palmas (Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Las Palmas).

Does 112 answer in English in the Canary Islands?

Yes. 112 is free to call and works 24 hours a day across the Canary Islands (Gobierno de Canarias Dirección General de Emergencias). Its call-takers answer directly in Spanish, English, German, Italian, and French, and can connect a telephone interpreter for other languages (Gobierno de Canarias Portal de Noticias).

Will my GHIC cover a doctor my hotel calls?

Hotels and tour operators might sometimes call or recommend a private doctor, who will charge you; your EHIC or GHIC will not be accepted there (European Commission, GOV.UK Travel Advice Spain). If you are asked to pay upfront, you are not being treated in the public system and your card is not being accepted; you should ask specifically for "asistencia sanitaria pública" to use state reciprocal agreements (European Commission).

Need to speak to a doctor right now from your accommodation? Book a video consultation with an English-speaking doctor.

How to See a Doctor in the Canary Islands as a Tourist