For anything short of an emergency, the Canarian pharmacy is the place to start: a Spanish pharmacist can assess a minor problem and hand you a treatment on the spot, without an appointment and usually without a prescription. Look for the flashing green cross. Every town has at least one farmacia, every resort has several, and the person behind the counter holds a five-year degree and is legally the first line of primary care.
Above that sits the Spanish state system, which in the archipelago is run by the Servicio Canario de la Salud. It has health centres in every municipality and full hospitals on all seven islands, with the largest in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas. Alongside it runs a dense private sector, which is what most resort clinics actually are. Knowing which door you are walking through matters, because it decides who pays.
The short version for a British visitor: carry a GHIC, carry travel insurance as well, and use the pharmacy first. For an Irish visitor, the European Health Insurance Card does the same job. The rest of this page explains what each of those gets you and where it stops.
The green cross, and why there are so many
Spain regulates pharmacies more tightly than the UK does. A farmacia must be owned by a qualified pharmacist, and new licences are issued against population and distance rules rather than handed to whoever wants one. The practical result is a lot of small independent shops rather than a handful of chains inside supermarkets, and a pharmacist who is genuinely running the place rather than dispensing behind a counter at the back of a shop selling shampoo.
That is why the advice to "ask at the pharmacy" carries more weight here than it does at home. Walk in with a sore throat, a child's ear pain, an infected mosquito bite, a rash after a day on the sand at Las Vistas or a stomach that has turned, and you will get an actual assessment. If it is beyond them, they will tell you to go to a health centre, and they will tell you which one.
What a pharmacist can give you without a prescription
A good deal more than you might expect, and slightly less than the internet claims. Painkillers, anti-inflammatories, antihistamines, rehydration salts, anti-diarrhoeals, motion-sickness tablets, strong after-sun preparations, antiseptics, dressings, eye drops and hydrocortisone creams are all sold sin receta — without a prescription — and often in strengths a British chemist would not sell over the counter.
The firm exception is antibiotics. Spain used to have a reputation for selling them freely; it does not any more. National controls have tightened considerably and a pharmacist who sells antibiotics without a prescription risks their licence. If you think you need them, you need to see a doctor. The same goes for anything you would need a repeat prescription for at home, which is why you should bring your own regular medication in its labelled box, with enough for the trip plus a few days.
Write down the generic name of anything you take regularly, not just the brand. Brand names differ across Europe; paracetamol, ibuprofeno and omeprazol travel fine. A photo of the box on your phone is the two-minute job that saves an awkward conversation.
The guardia rota on the door
Pharmacies keep ordinary shop hours, which in smaller towns means a long midday break of the kind described on our page about the Canarian working day. But at any hour, in any municipality, one pharmacy is on duty.
The rota is called the farmacia de guardia, and by law it is displayed on the door or in the window of every pharmacy, whether that one is open or not. It is a printed list — dates down one side, the duty pharmacy and its address alongside. If you find a closed farmacia at eleven at night, do not walk away: read the sheet in the window and you will learn which one is open and how far it is. Local papers print the same list, and the regional pharmacists' colleges publish it online.
In the big resorts the duty pharmacy is often a short walk. In rural municipalities on La Gomera or El Hierro it may be in the next village down a hairpin road, which is a good argument for packing a small medicine kit if you are staying somewhere remote.
Health centres, clinics and hospitals
Three different things, easily confused:
- Centro de salud — the public health centre, the equivalent of a GP surgery. This is where your GHIC or EHIC works. Most have some form of urgent walk-in provision, and larger ones (centro de salud con urgencias) run extended hours.
- Private clinic — the "medical centre" signposted in every resort, often with an English-speaking doctor and a same-hour appointment. Fast, competent, and it will charge you or your insurer. A consultation typically runs into the low hundreds of euros before treatment.
- Hospital — public hospitals handle serious illness and injury. Emergency departments are urgencias. The public hospitals on the main islands are large, modern and well regarded; Spain's health system consistently ranks among the strongest in Europe.
The emergency number across the islands, as everywhere in the EU, is 112. It is free from any phone, works without credit, and the operators handle English. Use it for anything genuinely urgent rather than trying to find a clinic yourself.
Using a UK GHIC
The Global Health Insurance Card replaced the EHIC for most UK residents after Brexit. It entitles you to state-provided medically necessary healthcare in Spain, including the Canaries, on the same terms as a Spanish resident — which for most primary care means free at the point of use. It is free to apply for through the NHS website, and the only place to apply is the official NHS service; anything charging you a fee is a copycat site. Existing EHICs remain valid until their expiry date. Irish residents use the standard EHIC issued by the HSE.
What the card does not do matters just as much. It is not travel insurance. It will not repatriate you, it will not cover a private clinic, it will not pay for a cancelled holiday, it will not cover the excess on a ruined hire car, and it does not cover treatment the Spanish system itself charges residents for. The UK government's own advice on gov.uk is explicit that you need both the card and a policy, and our page on whether travel insurance is really necessary here sets out why the combination is the only sensible answer.
Present the card before treatment, not after. A private clinic that has already opened a file on you as a paying patient is under no obligation to convert you into a state one, and resort clinics are not always eager to point out that a public health centre exists a mile inland.
What things typically cost
Pharmacy items are cheap by British standards, partly because the islands' low sales tax applies and partly because Spanish medicine prices are regulated. Basic medicines fall into the zero-rated band described on our explainer about the IGIC system, so a box of painkillers or rehydration sachets costs a couple of euros. Sun cream is not zero-rated and is not cheap — buy it before you fly, as the page on packing for the islands argues.
Private consultations vary widely and hotel call-outs cost the most of all. Always ask for the price before you agree to anything, and always ask for an itemised receipt (factura) with the clinic's tax details on it, because no insurer will reimburse a handwritten note.
Dentists, opticians and the things people forget
Dental care is private everywhere in Spain, for residents as well as visitors, so neither the GHIC nor most basic travel policies cover more than emergency pain relief. Resort dentists are used to visitors and can usually fit you in the same day. Opticians will replace a lost contact lens or repair glasses quickly and cheaply.
Two other gaps catch people out. Pre-existing conditions must be declared to your insurer or the policy may not respond at all, which is particularly relevant for older visitors making a long winter stay. And anything involving an activity your policy classes as hazardous — scuba, paragliding off the Famara cliffs, scooter hire — usually needs an add-on.
Language at the counter
In Playa del Inglés, Puerto del Carmen or Costa Adeje you will be served in English without thinking about it. In a village pharmacy in the hills you may not be, and the pharmacist will be patient while you work it out. A handful of words does the job: me duele aquí (it hurts here), fiebre (fever), alergia, desde ayer (since yesterday), ¿sin receta? (without prescription). Our list of phrases worth learning before you go has more, and in the resorts you will rarely need any of them.
Before you go
No vaccinations are required for the Canaries beyond keeping your routine UK or Irish schedule up to date, a point covered properly on our page about jabs for the islands. Pack your own medication, bring the GHIC, buy the insurance, and note the address of the nearest health centre on the day you arrive rather than the day you need it.
Then relax: the realistic health risks here are sunburn, a dodgy stomach and a twisted ankle on a lava path, all of which the wider guide to staying safe and well in the islands deals with. The green cross handles most of them, and the ones it cannot handle go to a hospital system that is genuinely very good.