Prescription Refills for UK Expats in Madrid

Healthcare in Madrid: what visitors and residents should know

How local care works in Madrid and across Community of Madrid, Spain — and where an online doctor fits alongside it.

Madrid's public healthcare is run by SERMAS, the Servicio Madrileño de Salud, the health service of the Community of Madrid. Spanish is the only official language, so there is no bilingual layer to navigate, but English provision in public facilities is limited outside the largest teaching hospitals. State healthcare is run at regional level, so the rules you meet depend on where you are rather than on Spain as a whole. EU, EEA and Swiss visitors holding an EHIC (or a UK GHIC) can use public primary care and emergency departments on the same terms as residents, though you will normally be asked for the card plus photo ID at reception. Outside surgery hours, pharmacies operate a rota — the farmacia de guardia — and the duty pharmacy is posted in the window of every closed chemist. As Spain's capital and its main international air hub, Madrid concentrates two very different needs: a large resident population of embassy staff, international students and corporate transferees who need continuity of care, and a constant flow of transiting travellers who need something resolved before a connecting flight. The city is inland at around 650 metres on the Meseta, which gives it a genuinely continental climate — summer highs well above those of the coastal resorts, with no sea breeze, and cold dry winters. Heat-related illness in July and August is a real presentation here, not a coastal cliché.

• Spain's business and cultural capital
• Major international hub
• Large expat and student population

Areas we cover around Madrid and Community of Madrid

An online consultation is not a substitute for emergency care. If you are in Madrid and your symptoms are severe or life-threatening, call 112 or go to the nearest emergency department.