Hospitals and medical care in Tenerife (visitor guide)

If you fall ill or get hurt in Tenerife, the number to call in any emergency is 112. It is free, works from any phone, and operates across the European Union, so you do not need credit or a local SIM to reach it. Tenerife's southern resorts are served by two private hospitals, Hospiten Sur in Playa de las Américas and Hospital Quirónsalud Costa Adeje, supported by a dense network of public health centres for everyday care. Serious public cases are usually taken to Hospital Universitario Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria in Santa Cruz, the nearest large public hospital. Pharmacies sit in every resort centre and run an out-of-hours rota, so one is almost always open. This guide covers who to call, which hospital is nearest your resort, how a GHIC or EHIC works, and how to find a late-night pharmacy.

Emergencies: who to call

In any emergency, call 112. It is the single, exclusive number for ambulance, police, and fire services across the Canary Islands. It is free from any mobile or landline, and you can reach it with no credit or local SIM. The service runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and operators answer in English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian.

Note: The 061 medical line used on the Spanish mainland is not available in the Canary Islands; all medical emergencies are routed exclusively through 112.

When you call, give your location first, the resort, street, or hotel name, then describe what has happened. If you are not sure whether a situation is serious enough to call, call anyway. Dispatchers would rather assess a minor case than miss a real one.

Hospitals in the south (private)

The hospitals most visitors actually attend in the south are private, because they sit within minutes of the resorts. Here is every in-resort option side by side, so you can see what is nearest your hotel.

Hospiten Sur and Hospital Quirónsalud Costa Adeje are full private hospitals, and they are the closest hospitals to the main resort strip. The Quirónsalud site sits in San Eugenio, a few minutes from the Costa Adeje seafront. The clinic names reflect the south's international visitor mix, with the Hispano Alemán clinic oriented towards Spanish and German speakers, though this guide cannot confirm which languages each facility staffs day to day, so check the facility's own site if that matters to you.

One honest caveat: Clínica Vintersol is a rehabilitation clinic, not an emergency hospital, so it is not the place to head for a sudden injury or acute illness. And because all of these are private, expect to be asked for travel insurance details or payment up front. A GHIC or EHIC applies to Spain's public system, so it is generally not accepted at these private hospitals. For routine or non-urgent care on state cover, use the public centres described below. In a genuine emergency that distinction does not apply: call 112 and go wherever you are taken.

Public healthcare and your GHIC or EHIC

Spain runs a two-tier health system, and this is the part visitors most often get wrong. The public side is the Servicio Canario de Salud, which provides free or low-cost state care. UK visitors access it with a valid GHIC, and EU or EEA visitors with an EHIC. Visitors from countries without a reciprocal healthcare arrangement with Spain generally need travel insurance or must pay privately.

In the south, public care starts at a centro de salud for primary, non-emergency needs. The catch worth understanding before anything goes wrong: if you call 112 with a serious case and rely on public cover, the public system, not the nearby private hospital, decides where you go. Serious public cases from the south are commonly taken to Candelaria in Santa Cruz, though emergency services decide the most appropriate hospital based on the patient's condition and available capacity. It sits around 59 km north via the TF-1 motorway, roughly 40 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. The private hospitals in your resort are convenient and close, but they are not part of the GHIC or EHIC system.

Coverage is denser than this table shows. Smaller consultorios also operate in Las Galletas, Costa del Silencio, Playa San Juan, and Alcalá, so wherever you are based in the south, a public point of care is usually close.

The island's main public hospitals

For serious cases, the public system runs through two large university hospitals, both near the island's two cities rather than the southern resorts. Knowing which one serves the south explains the drive distance above.

Candelaria is the hospital that most often takes serious public cases from the south coast. That distance is the practical reason many visitors with a worrying but non-critical problem are first seen privately, close to the resort, and it is also why solid travel cover matters even when you hold a GHIC or EHIC.

Pharmacies and the out-of-hours rota

Pharmacies (farmacias) are easy to find, marked by a green cross, and every resort centre has several within a short walk. For minor problems, sunburn, upset stomachs, painkillers, a pharmacist is often the fastest first stop, no appointment needed.

Out of hours, pharmacies share the load through a duty rota, the farmacia de guardia. At any time, at least one pharmacy in the area stays open, and the others post the current duty pharmacy on their door. The official daily rotation for the province is published by the Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife at coftenerife.org. That is the source to trust. Third-party listing sites are often out of date, so use the official portal or read the notice on the pharmacy door rather than assuming a particular shop is open late.

Before you travel: insurance, GHIC or EHIC, and what to bring

What you should carry depends on where you are from. UK visitors should bring a valid GHIC, applied for free through the NHS at nhs.uk/ghic. EU and EEA visitors should carry an EHIC, obtained through their own national health authority. One warning that saves people money: apply only through the official government portal. Private sites that charge an "application fee" for either card are not official, and the cards themselves are free.

A GHIC or EHIC is not the same as travel insurance, and this gap catches people out. The GHIC replaced the EHIC for UK residents, while existing EHICs stay valid until they expire. Either card gives you access to state-provided care on the same basis as a resident, but neither covers repatriation home, an air ambulance, or treatment at the private in-resort hospitals most tourists actually use. Travel insurance fills that gap, so take both rather than treating one as a substitute for the other. This is plain advice, not a product recommendation.

Pack any regular medication in your hand luggage with enough to cover the trip, plus a copy of the prescription or the generic drug name in case you need a top-up. Note your insurance policy number somewhere you can reach it quickly, and save 112 in your phone before you fly. Our practical safety guide covers wider trip-safety basics, and our travel insurance page goes into cover in more detail.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: Cabildo de Tenerife open data, Centros médicos, farmacias y servicios sanitarios (datos.tenerife.es, CC-BY, 2026-06-01) · 112 Canarias, Gobierno de Canarias (112canarias.com) · Servicio de Urgencias Canario, GSC (gsccanarias.com) · Colegio Oficial de Farmacéuticos de Santa Cruz de Tenerife (coftenerife.org) · NHS GHIC (nhs.uk/ghic) · European Commission EHIC portal (ec.europa.eu)