How to See a Doctor in Spain: Primary Care, GP Visits and Referrals With Sanitas

To see a doctor in Spain with Sanitas you choose any GP in the network, book in the app or by phone, and go. There is no registration with a doctor, no assigned doctor and no referral for most specialists. Primary care, meaning general practitioners, paediatrics up to 15, nursing and emergencies, is included on every Sanitas plan from the first day, with no waiting period. Only Sanitas Unico and the International Students plan leave out paediatrics. A GP visit costs €0 on Sanitas Mas Salud and the other plans without copayments. On the plans with copayments it is between €0 and €15 a visit, depending on the plan and how many services you have used that year. A copayment is a fixed sum you pay Sanitas each time you use a service. On the public system you register at a health centre, are assigned a family doctor and need that doctor's referral to see a specialist. Paying privately without insurance, a GP consultation at an English-speaking family clinic on the Costa del Sol costs €85 (Triay Medical Centre, September 2026).

This guide explains the three ways to see a doctor in Spain, then what primary care includes on a Sanitas plan and which plans leave something out. It covers when you still need a referral, how to book a GP step by step and what a visit costs on each plan. It ends with home visits, children, out-of-hours care, and what a GP does not do on a Sanitas policy. A GP, for readers used to American terms, is the family doctor or primary care physician. Spanish terms are given as you will meet them. A GP is a medico de familia or medico de cabecera and a health centre is a centro de salud. An appointment is a cita, a prescription a receta, a referral slip a volante, sick leave a baja, the public health card the tarjeta sanitaria, and an emergency department urgencias.

Three ways to see a doctor in Spain

You can see a doctor in Spain in three ways: through the public system, with a Sanitas plan, or by paying a private clinic per visit. The route you take decides who your doctor is, how you book and whether you can go straight to a specialist.

The public route is explained in our guide to how to register with a public doctor, and the pros and cons of each system in public versus private healthcare. The rest of this page is about the Sanitas route.

What primary care includes on a Sanitas plan

Primary care with Sanitas means general practitioners, paediatrics up to 15, nursing, and general emergencies at permanent emergency centres, at home and through Sanitas 24 Hours. Here is what each of those covers.

• General medicine. Consultations with a GP at a Sanitas centre, and home visits when your illness stops you getting to the clinic. The GP can prescribe basic tests, meaning blood and urine analysis and general X-rays. Consultations are unlimited and there is no waiting period.
• Paediatrics. Care for children until they turn 15, in the consulting room and at home. Spanish children see a paediatrician rather than a GP for everyday illness. That lasts until about 14 in the public system, where the age varies by region, and until they turn 15 with Sanitas; our guide to paediatrician cover explains how that works.
• Nursing. Injections, dressings, wound care and similar simple procedures at a nursing centre and, with a doctor's prescription, at home. Our guide to nursing services lists what a nursing centre does and when a prescription is needed.
• Emergencies. Sanitas permanent emergency centres, and in justified cases the round-the-clock emergency service at the place where you are, in the towns where Sanitas has contracted one. Our guide to emergency cover covers what to do and when to call 112.
• Sanitas 24 Hours. A telephone line staffed by a medical team 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for medical questions and advice, on most plans.
• Video consultations. A 24-hour emergency video consultation with a GP, and on the family plans a paediatrician, with no appointment needed, plus video appointments with specialists, on every plan sold today.

The network behind this is large. Sanitas has more than 58,000 professionals in more than 4,500 of its own and partner centres (September 2026). Our directory of Sanitas GPs lists 1,741 clinics with a Sanitas general practitioner, 2,993 GPs in all, across 48 provinces plus Ceuta and Melilla. Among the largest counts are 208 clinics in Madrid, 172 in Barcelona, 109 in Valencia, 93 in Malaga, 86 in Seville, 56 in Murcia and 55 in Alicante. There are also 784 paediatric clinics, 725 nursing centres and 85 emergency units in 28 provinces. In Navarra and Cantabria Sanitas members are seen through partner insurers' networks; ask us before you rely on a clinic there.

Which plans leave something out

Every full-cover plan includes all of the above. That means the Mas Salud range (Mas Salud, Family, Optima and Plus), Top Quantum, the worldwide plans (Mas 90, Mas 90 Plus and Premium 500), the Professional plans for the self-employed, and Residents Visa. The outpatient plans and the student plan are narrower:

• Sanitas Accede (new members up to 59): GP, paediatrics, nursing, emergencies and home visits. It does not include the preventive medicine programmes.
• Sanitas Avanza (up to 59): the full primary-care list including Sanitas 24 Hours, but no preventive programmes.
• Sanitas Unico (from 60): GP, nursing, emergencies and home visits in Spain, plus its own video GP service, but no paediatrics and no Sanitas 24 Hours line.
• International Students (14 to 35): everything except paediatrics.

Do you need a referral to see a specialist in Spain?

In the public system, yes. The law that organises Spanish healthcare makes primary care the entry point and the manager of your case. An outpatient specialist appointment normally comes through your family doctor's referral; the other doors are the hospital emergency department and a specialist who is already treating you. With Sanitas, no: you do not need a Sanitas referral for most specialists. Every Sanitas policy gives you direct access to specialists, general practitioners, paediatricians and the emergency centres. If you think you need a urologist or a dermatologist, you book one; you do not see a GP first unless you want to. The GP, or an internal medicine specialist, is still the right first call when you do not know which specialist you need, or when a problem crosses several specialities.

A few things do need paperwork, and the GP is often the person who provides it:

• Tests, treatments and certain services need a written prescription from a doctor in the Sanitas network. A GP can prescribe blood tests with Sanitas and general X-rays; a specialist normally prescribes an MRI scan or a CT scan, and complex tests, hospital admissions and surgery also need prior authorisation from Sanitas.
• Psychology must be prescribed by a psychiatrist, GP, oncologist or paediatrician, so a GP visit is a normal way in. Only Top Quantum's separate preventive clinical psychology sessions need a psychiatrist's prescription. Our guide to psychology cover has the rules and session limits for each plan.
• Physiotherapy needs a prescription and prior authorisation; Sanitas asks for the slip, the boletin, from a traumatologist. See our guide to physiotherapy and our referral FAQ.

A few specialities need a prescription or authorisation before you can be seen; tell us which specialist you need and we will check.

How to see a doctor in Spain with Sanitas, step by step

1. Find a GP. Open the app and search under general medicine, or use our GP directory by province. Each entry shows the clinic's address and phone number. Pick anyone; you are not tied to one doctor and can choose a different one next time.
2. Book your Sanitas appointment. Book online in the app where the clinic offers it, or phone the clinic. Waiting times vary by clinic; when you book online you see the dates each clinic offers, and we can check the clinics near you. For something that cannot wait for an appointment, the 24-hour emergency video consultation in the app connects you to a GP without one.
3. Go. Policies start on the 1st of a month, and once your policy is activated, Sanitas sends you a text message with the link to the app, which holds the digital card. Take that card, or the plastic one, and photo ID; the clinic may ask for both. Nothing is paid at the desk.
4. Tests and referrals. If the GP orders a blood test or an X-ray, the prescription goes on your account and you book the test yourself at a Sanitas laboratory or radiology centre. A paper volante is printed if you ask for one or if you are having the test somewhere other than a Sanitas centre. If the GP suggests a specialist, you book that specialist directly.
5. Prescriptions. A Sanitas GP writes a private prescription valid at any Spanish pharmacy. You pay the pharmacy the full price of the medicine, or half of it with the pharmacy add-on, which refunds 50 per cent of prescribed medicines up to €200 a person a year. If you also have public cover, a public prescription carries the state subsidy, so residents usually pay only 10 to 60 per cent of the price. That is why many residents keep the public GP for repeat medicines and use Sanitas for everything else.
6. Afterwards. The consultation note, any results and your prescriptions appear in your health folder in the app. Any copayment is billed to your account with the next monthly premium.

Booking is in English: the app runs in English and Spanish. Whether the doctor speaks English depends on the clinic, and ask us if you want a recommendation near you.

What a GP visit costs on each Sanitas plan

A copayment is a small fixed amount you pay Sanitas each time you use a service, and a GP consultation counts as one service on every plan that has them. Most of these plans use a sliding scale, which Sanitas calls a ladder: the more services you use in a policy year, the more each one costs. Nothing is paid at the clinic; Sanitas adds the copayments to your monthly bill. For policies starting in 2026 the copayments are:

On every plan with copayments the 24-hour emergency video consultation carries no copayment.

Our guide to how copayments work has the full schedules, including tests, dental and the high-frequency courses. The plan itself is priced by age and province. At 30 to 39 in mainland Spain Mas Salud with no copayments costs €89.53 to €116.82 a month. Mas Salud Optima costs about a third less, and Sanitas Accede roughly a third of the Mas Salud premium. Our guide to how much health insurance costs in Spain gives every age band, and you can compare the Sanitas plans with your own date of birth in two minutes.

Children, home visits and out of hours

Children

A child on a Sanitas policy sees a paediatrician for everything a British or Irish child would see the GP for, until the day they turn 15, in the consulting room and at home. You book the paediatrician directly, with no referral and no family doctor in between, and a paediatric visit counts as one service on the copayment plans, the same as a GP visit. Preventive child check-ups run from birth to 11 on the Mas Salud plans. Sanitas Unico and the International Students plan do not include paediatrics, so a child needs a plan of their own; our guide to children's cover explains the options.

Home visits

When your illness stops you getting to the clinic, a GP or a paediatrician can come to you without a prescription. A nurse at home, an ambulance and the other home services need a doctor's prescription. Two limits apply: home services exist only in the towns where Sanitas has contracted them, and Sanitas can decline a visit its doctor considers unnecessary. Home physiotherapy is excluded on the Mas Salud range of plans; Sanitas Unico is the exception, with five prescribed sessions a year. For home services Sanitas asks for eight days' notice of a change of address.

Out of hours

At night, at the weekend or on a holiday, the right door depends on how serious it is:

• Life-threatening: call 112 and go to the nearest emergency department, whether or not it is in the network. If you are admitted to a hospital outside the network, tell Sanitas as soon as possible; the policy requires it. Sanitas then moves you to a network hospital once you are stable.
• Worrying but not life-threatening: open the 24-hour emergency video consultation in the app, which puts you through to the GP on duty without an appointment and carries no copayment on any plan. A paediatrician is on the video service Monday to Friday, 8am to 10pm. Outside those hours a child's emergency is handled by the Sanitas 24 Hours medical team. Or go to a Sanitas permanent emergency centre where there is one near you (85 units in 28 provinces; check the directory). A visit there costs €8 on Optima, Accede, Avanza and Unico, €5 on Mas 90 Plus, and counts as one service on Plus and Professional Plus.
• Advice only: ring the Sanitas 24 Hours line, on most plans, where a medical team answers questions 24 hours a day and helps you decide whether something needs a doctor tonight. The number is printed on the back of your Sanitas card. On Mas 90 Plus each call carries a €3.50 copayment.

What a GP does not do on a Sanitas policy

• General check-ups. The full-cover policies exclude general medical examinations for preventive purposes. What they include instead are the preventive programmes run by specialists, such as the gynaecology, cardiology and urology reviews on the Mas Salud plans. Top Quantum adds a full medical check-up every five years at 20 to 39 and every three years after that.
• Vaccines. No plan pays for the vaccine itself, including the flu jab. On the full-cover plans vaccines are excluded along with the medicines you take at home; Accede and Unico do not cover medicines at all. Sanitas gives a vaccine in only two cases: the newborn checks in the first 48 hours and, on Top Quantum, the childhood schedule. Ask us before assuming a Sanitas nurse will give one you have bought. If you are also registered with the public system, the childhood vaccines, and the flu jab if you are in a group the annual campaign covers, are given at your centro de salud.
• Medicines. The GP prescribes; you pay the pharmacy, unless you have the pharmacy add-on.
• Sick notes. A Sanitas doctor can write a report of the consultation. Official sick leave for Spanish social security, the baja, is issued by a public health service doctor whether you are employed or self-employed, or by your mutua after a work accident.
• Public health centres. Your Sanitas card works only at Sanitas doctors, clinics and hospitals; care at public centres is excluded.
• Doctors outside the network. On most plans a consultation with a doctor who is not in the network is not paid, except in a life-threatening emergency. Mas 90, Mas 90 Plus and Premium 500 add a reimbursement fund that pays a share of consultations with any doctor, in Spain or abroad. Top Quantum reimburses GP, paediatric and gynaecology consultations outside the network, with a 20 per cent excess.

Waiting periods, pre-existing conditions and switching from another insurer

There is no waiting period for GP, paediatric or nursing consultations, home visits or emergencies on any Sanitas plan; you can book a GP on the first day of cover. The waiting periods that do exist apply to a short list of other services, such as hospital admissions, complex scans and childbirth. If you have held a full-cover Spanish health policy with another insurer for at least a year without a gap, Sanitas normally waives them all except childbirth on its network plans; ask us to confirm. A condition you already have is judged at application, not at the clinic: our guide to pre-existing conditions explains what the health questionnaire asks and the three possible outcomes. Once you are accepted, a GP consultation needs no further check; Sanitas can still ask for medical reports when it authorises tests, treatment or an admission, and an undeclared pre-existing condition can void that authorisation.

Which plan for the way you use a doctor

• Sanitas Mas Salud when you want full cover and to pay nothing per visit: €0 at the GP, the specialist and the emergency department, and it is accepted for visas and residency. Our visa health insurance page explains the visa route.
• Sanitas Residents Visa when you are applying for a non-lucrative or other residency visa from abroad and want no copayments and no waiting periods at all.
• Mas Salud Optima or Mas Salud Plus when you see a doctor a few times a year and would rather pay a few euros a visit for a lower premium. Not accepted for a visa or residency application.
• Sanitas Accede when you are under 60 and mainly want a GP, specialists, simple tests and emergencies at the lowest price, with no hospital cover; not accepted for a visa or residency application.
• Sanitas Unico when you are 60 or over, want outpatient care with no health questionnaire, and have no children on the policy; not accepted for a visa or residency application.
• Sanitas Professional when you are a registered autonomo: the same primary care with no copayments. The premium is deductible from your income tax, up to €500 a year each for you, your spouse and children under 25 living with you, if you file under estimacion directa; ask your gestor.

Whichever plan you choose, primary care works the same way: choose your GP, book, go, and pay nothing at the desk. Ask us if you want us to check that the clinic near you has a GP in the network before you sign up.

Frequently asked questions

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