Prescription Refills for UK Expats in Valencia

Healthcare in Valencia: what visitors and residents should know

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

Valencia's public healthcare is run by the Conselleria de Sanitat of the Generalitat Valenciana, which organises the city into health districts each anchored by a hospital with a 24-hour urgencias department. Spanish and Valencian are both co-official, and you will see Valencian used first on much official health signage. 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. Unlike the resort towns further south, Valencia is a working city with a large student and young-professional population alongside a growing number of remote workers, so demand skews towards travel-health advice, contraception and prescriptions rather than holiday injuries. The city sits on the coast with an extensive beach and huerta hinterland, and its summers are humid as well as hot — a combination that reliably produces heat-related presentations and skin complaints from late June through September.

• Growing expat community
• Affordable Mediterranean living
• Famous for paella and beaches

Areas we cover around Valencia and Valencian Community

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