What does primary care include in Spain?

When we change our place of residence, one of our first concerns is usually to find the doctor who will be our primary care physician from that moment on. Having someone we can trust to turn to in case we or someone in our family needs it becomes a priority. And this is important because healthcare does not always have to be a matter of emergencies. 

Regular check-ups and early consultations are what prevent the arrival of major health problems. Thus, primary care becomes the foundation of a great healthcare system. Primary care physicians are the pillars that support the rest of medical specialists and prevent hospital emergency departments from collapsing. That is why it is important to answer the following question: what does primary care include in Spain? And also what we must do to take advantage of its benefits. 

What is primary care?

Primary care in Spain is the gateway to the general healthcare system. In this first level we find family doctors (general practitioners), paediatricians and nursing professionals. These professionals are the ones who will attend to our non-urgent consultations which, nowadays, can be dealt with face-to-face or by telephone.

When we have any persistent symptoms or we need to resolve any doubts concerning our state of health, we will go to our primary care health centre. Thus, in the consultation or in the infirmary they will help us solve the problem. Most of the time they will indicate a treatment, and sometimes they will refer us to the most appropriate specialist, if necessary.

As we have said before, it is in primary care where the follow-up of patients and the prevention of major ailments are carried out. As far as health prevention is concerned, one of our best resources is vaccination, especially in childhood and the elderly. But the vaccination program is not the only one that brings us closer to primary care in Spain.

Coverage under Spanish public healthcare

In addition to consultations with our family doctor and the diagnostic tests he or she may request, what does primary care include in Spain? Primary care includes programs for the early detection of diseases. These include those related to the most frequent types of cancer, such as breast cancer and colon cancer.

Beyond physical health, we cannot forget about mental health care. It is in primary care that disorders such as depression and anxiety, or eating disorders such as bulimia and anorexia nervosa, to name just a few examples, are detected. These routine controls are very important in matters such as suicide prevention or early detection of certain types of dementia.

Another important point is the financing of drugs by the Spanish National Health System. In this way, doctors in primary care will provide us with prescriptions that we will be able to use in any pharmacy, nationwide. Users of the health system will pay only a part of the total cost of the medicine, depending on age, income and other conditions. This is known as co-payment.

It is worth mentioning that, thanks to the unstoppable digitalization of the healthcare system, Spain´s autonomous communities are working every day to launch and improve various free mobile applications that facilitate access to our medical tests, pending appointments, certificates, etc.

Primary care in numbers

Knowing some significant figures can help us to know better the primary care system in Spain. Let's start by saying that there are 13,040 health care centres throughout the country. Let's remember that these centres are the mainstays of the Spanish healthcare system, since they are the place where visits to the family doctor, blood tests, nursing visits, vaccinations and some diagnostic tests are carried out.

If we talk about professionals, there are currently 30,000 physicians and 33,000 nurses in Spain who care for more than 40 million patients (nationals and foreign residents).

In recent years there has been a change in waiting times. While it used to be quite common to be able to make an appointment with our doctor from one day to the next (sometimes even on the same day), nowadays the average waiting time for a first consultation is 9 days. This situation causes concern among patients, who have to wait more than a week to find out what their problem is. This often leads to overcrowding in hospital emergency rooms, which is why many people choose to take out private health insurance.

Private insurance for the whole family

If you have recently arrived in Spain, or if you are thinking of changing your current private health insurance, you can take a look at Integral Health Insurance, from Caser Expat Insurance. With this insurance you will be covered for visits to the family doctor, the infirmary and, most importantly if you have children, the paediatrician. In addition, Integral offers a 24-hour medical assistance service, so that you can clear up doubts and make paediatric consultations whenever you need to.

In addition, under its primary care coverage, you will have telemedicine service. This feature will allow you to make consultations from home, either by telephone, videoconference or medical chat. If you want to know more details, you can click on this link and see all the coverage and services available.

After the pandemic that brought us Covid-19, many things have changed with respect to health. Our sanitary habits, the functioning of hospitals and emergency rooms, waiting lists for specialties, etc. We started by asking ourselves what does primary care include in Spain?

Well, with all the information we have provided in this article, we hope we have helped you to learn a little more about the current Spanish healthcare system and that you understand the importance of the proper functioning of primary care. As the saying goes, prevention is better than curing. A timely consultation can save us a lot of complications, whether we are older or if we are talking about our children.

If you need more information or have any questions regarding this topic, do not hesitate to contact us so we can help you.