Doctors, insurance and emergencies in Malaga

Getting the tarjeta sanitaria

You register in person at the centro de salud covering your address. Bring the application form, identity documents for the holder and for each beneficiary over fourteen, the libro de familia for children younger than that, the INSS document showing you are an insured person or a beneficiary, and a certificado de empadronamiento proving you live in Andalucía. Registration assigns you a GP, and a paediatrician for children, at that centre. Since 26 March 2026 the region has also issued a virtual card usable on a phone in place of the plastic one.

• If you are non-EU and the TIE card has not physically arrived, ask the centro de salud what it will accept in the meantime rather than assuming, because counter practice varies.

Salud Responde

Salud Responde is the health service's booking and enquiry channel, open 24 hours a day, every day, on 955 54 50 60, by email at saludresponde@juntadeandalucia.es and through a free app. It books GP, paediatric and nursing appointments and handles cancellations and administrative steps. The app is the path of least resistance once your card exists.

Cover for the gap before the card

EU, EEA and Swiss arrivals use the European Health Insurance Card from home, which covers medically necessary state treatment until they are registered. Non-EU applicants normally have to hold Spanish private insurance with no co-payments and no waiting periods as a condition of the visa itself, so the policy is already running when they land and simply continues until the public card comes through. For a healthy adult, full private cover without co-payments starts at roughly €47 a month and runs to about €85 depending on the insurer. Age is the single biggest factor in the price: averages across the market run from about €60 a month at twenty to about €220 at seventy.

If you have no entitlement at all

Someone legally resident in Andalucía with no social-security entitlement can buy into the public system through the convenio especial, at €60 a month under 65 and €157 a month from 65. It requires twelve continuous months of effective residence in Spain immediately before applying, registration on the padrón of an Andalusian municipality, and no access to public cover by any other route, and it does not include medicines at subsidised rates. Separately, Real Decreto 180/2026, in force since 13 March 2026, set one nationwide procedure for foreign nationals without legal residence to have their right to publicly funded care recognised: a declaración responsable that the legal conditions are met, identity documents, and evidence of being in Spain, which can be a padrón certificate or an alternative such as a school enrolment or a social-services report. It sets no minimum time on the padrón and the regions may not add requirements of their own. A provisional document is issued when the application is filed, so care is available while the file is decided.

Emergencies

112 is the general emergency number, free, multilingual, and reaching every service. 061 goes straight to the health service for a medical emergency that needs an ambulance. Hospital urgencias departments treat anyone who presents, whatever their registration status.