28 October 202612 min read

Spain Healthcare Waiting Times by Region: What the Official Data Shows

Medical Review

Medically Reviewed by Dr. Pedro Yelamo Vera, MD

Licensed Physician No. 484814280 · Official Medical College of Bizkaia (Spain)Last reviewed: 28 October 2026

How long you wait for a GP, a specialist or an operation in each region of Spain: the Ministry of Health's latest figures in one table, with a free download.

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Healthcare waiting times in Spain vary a lot by region and by type of care. People who had to wait for a public family doctor waited 9.15 days on average in 2025, and only about 1 in 5 were seen the same or next day. Patients on the specialist list had waited 102 days, and the surgery list 122 days, at the end of 2025. This guide is by Dr. Pedro Yelamo Vera, an English-speaking GP licensed in Spain (Colegiado No. 484814280) who sees patients by video in English and Spanish.

In short

GP: 21.8% of people got a public GP appointment for the day they asked or the next day in 2025. About 7 in 10 had to wait because no earlier slot was free, for 9.15 days on average. In late March 2026 it was 10.27 days.
Specialist: on 31 December 2025, people on the list for a first specialist visit had waited 102 days on average. About 4 million people were on that list.
Surgery: 853,740 people were waiting for a non-urgent operation, for 122 days on average. 21.6% had waited more than six months.
Longest waits: Andalusia for a GP (11.16 days) and for surgery (173 days); the Canary Islands for a specialist (162 days).
Shortest waits: the Basque Country for a GP (4.91 days); Madrid for surgery (50 days).
38.2% of adults say waiting lists got worse in the past year.
Emergencies never go on a waiting list: call 112.

How long do you wait to see a GP in Spain?

About 9 days, if no earlier appointment is free. In 2025, 21.8% of people who asked for a public family doctor (médico de familia) appointment were seen on the day they asked or the next day. But 69.8% of all patients had to wait longer because there was no earlier slot. They waited 9.15 days on average, and 1 in 4 of them waited 11 days or more.

The wait seems to be growing. The same measure was 8.80 days in 2022 and 9.15 days in 2025. In the first survey round of 2026, in late March, it reached 10.27 days. The Ministry warns that one round is a smaller sample than a full year and that the 2026 question changed slightly, so compare with care. The share of people seen the same or next day stayed at 21.8%.

These figures come from the Barómetro Sanitario, a large survey of adults run by the Ministry of Health with the CIS, Spain's public research centre for surveys. People say how long they waited for their last GP visit. The 9.15 days is the average for those who had to wait, not for every patient.

How long is the wait for a specialist in Spain?

On 31 December 2025, people on the list for a first visit to a public specialist had been waiting 102 days on average. 61.5% faced a wait of more than 60 days. About 4 million people were on the list: 84 for every 1,000 people. Of the 10 specialties the Ministry reports, orthopaedics (132 days) and dermatology (127 days) had the longest waits.

The survey gives a second view. People who saw a specialist after a GP referral remembered a wait of 129 days on average, and 39% said it took more than three months. The two figures measure different things, so they do not match exactly.

How long is the wait for an operation in Spain?

853,740 people were waiting for a non-urgent operation on 31 December 2025. That is the highest number in the Ministry's last seven half-yearly reports. They had waited 122 days on average, and 184,748 of them (21.6%) more than six months. Plastic surgery (269 days) and neurosurgery (172 days) had the longest waits.

Which regions of Spain have the longest waiting lists?

It depends on the list. Andalusia has the longest average GP wait (11.16 days) and the longest surgery wait (173 days). The Canary Islands have the longest specialist wait (162 days). The Basque Country has the shortest GP wait (4.91 days), and Madrid the shortest surgery wait (50 days). This table shows every region, in alphabetical order.

Region	GP: average days (people who had to wait), 2025	GP: seen the same or next day, 2025	Specialist: average days waited, Dec 2025	Surgery: average days waited, Dec 2025	Surgery: waiting over 6 months, Dec 2025
Andalusia	11.16	14.62%	136	173	32.2%
Aragon	8.73	33.15%	138	132	21.7%
Asturias	5.45	31.05%	103	91	10.4%
Balearic Islands	7.97	24.06%	71	105	22.4%
Basque Country	4.91	30.80%	49	64	2.3%
Canary Islands	8.69	11.65%	162	106	17.4%
Cantabria	5.90	36.93%	61	137	26.2%
Castile and León	6.08	30.16%	102	87	13.8%
Castilla-La Mancha	7.95	28.56%	64	117	16.5%
Catalonia	10.59	22.65%	120	142	32.0%
Ceuta*	5.55	20.31%	72	94	15.1%
Extremadura	6.37	31.42%	112	135	23.1%
Galicia	8.82	24.87%	63	73	5.7%
La Rioja	6.47	42.06%	32	78	6.4%
Madrid	9.60	16.60%	68	50	0.8%
Melilla*	7.76	45.93%	16	82	8.2%
Murcia	6.41	23.23%	89	103	19.3%
Navarre	6.23	48.26%	152	96	16.7%
Valencian Community	9.34	19.90%	95	88	16.1%
Spain (all regions)	9.15	22.17%	102	122	21.6%

* Ceuta and Melilla: very small survey samples; read their GP figures with care. The GP figures for Navarre, La Rioja and Cantabria also rest on few answers. GP columns: Barómetro Sanitario 2025 and the Ministry's INCLASNS indicator for 2025. Specialist and surgery columns: Ministry of Health, SISLE-SNS, 31 December 2025, rectified on 24 September 2026. Figures as published; checked on 28 October 2026. The national same-or-next-day share is 22.17% in INCLASNS, which leaves out "don't know" answers; the survey's own figure is 21.8%.

Same or next day GP visit: most likely in Navarre (48.26%) and least likely in the Canary Islands (11.65%).
Specialist: after the Canary Islands come Navarre (152 days), Aragon (138) and Andalusia (136). The shortest waits are in Melilla (16), La Rioja (32) and the Basque Country (49).
Surgery: after Andalusia come Catalonia (142 days) and Cantabria (137). After Madrid, the shortest are the Basque Country (64) and Galicia (73).

Regions count and manage their lists in slightly different ways, and each region is responsible for its own figures. In September 2026 the Ministry corrected the December 2025 data for Castilla-La Mancha. Small gaps between regions should not be read as a ranking.

Are waiting times in Spain getting longer?

Slowly, with ups and downs. The specialist wait went from 95 days in December 2022 to 102 days in December 2025. The surgery wait was 120 days in December 2022 and 122 days in December 2025, with a peak of 128 days in December 2023. The number of people waiting for surgery grew by about 60,000 over the same period.

Date	Specialist: average days	Specialist: over 60 days	Surgery: average days	Surgery: over 6 months	Surgery: people waiting
Dec 2022	95	55.7%	120	22.0%	793,521
Jun 2023	87	51.6%	112	17.4%	819,964
Dec 2023	101	56.3%	128	24.3%	849,535
Jun 2024	94	54.6%	121	20.5%	848,340
Dec 2024	105	62.3%	126	22.9%	846,583
Jun 2025	96	61.8%	118	19.6%	832,728
Dec 2025	102	61.5%	122	21.6%	853,740

Source: Ministry of Health, SISLE-SNS, report of 31 December 2025 (rectified), national series.

People feel it too. In 2025, 38.2% of adults said waiting lists had got worse in the past 12 months, and only 8.6% said they had improved.

How does Spain compare with the rest of the EU?

On waiting lists, Spain does slightly worse than the EU average. In 2025, 1.5% of people aged 16 and over in Spain said they went without a medical exam they needed because of a waiting list. The EU average was 1.2%. When cost and distance are also counted, Spain does better than the EU: 1.6% against 2.4%. These Eurostat figures measure care people did without, not the length of the wait.

What do these waits mean if you are an expat or a visitor?

A public GP appointment needs a Spanish health card (tarjeta sanitaria). New residents often wait weeks for the card before they can book at all. Visitors with an EHIC or a UK GHIC can use public health centres for care that cannot wait until they go home. Our guide to the EHIC and GHIC in Spain explains what they pay.

If a problem cannot wait for your appointment but is not an emergency, you have three options:

The pharmacy: pharmacists give free advice on minor problems and tell you when you need a doctor.
A private clinic: no health card needed; fees vary by clinic and by test.
A private online GP: Dr. Pedro Yelamo Vera sees patients by video every day, 07:30–20:30 (Spain time), in English or Spanish. A 15-minute visit for urgent, non-emergency care costs €50. Our guide to seeing a doctor in Spain as a tourist or new expat compares the routes.

Treatment and prescriptions are issued solely at the doctor's discretion, where clinically appropriate, following a genuine evaluation. A video visit cannot replace a physical exam, a blood test or a scan; you are referred when you need one.

How was this data put together?

GP waits come from the Barómetro Sanitario 2025, a telephone survey of 7,197 adults living in Spain, run in three rounds between April and November 2025. The 2026 figure is from the first round (2,602 people, interviewed in late March 2026). The regional GP figures are for 2025 only.
The GP average is conditional. It covers people who waited more than a day because no earlier slot was free, about 70% of patients.
Same or next day comes from INCLASNS, the Ministry's official indicators, built from the same survey without "don't know" answers.
Specialist and surgery waits come from SISLE-SNS, the Ministry's register of public waiting lists. The average is the time already waited by everyone on the list on 31 December 2025, the latest date published.
Limits: the survey interviews at least 250 people per region each year (about 120 in Ceuta and Melilla), more in the large regions, so regional GP figures are estimates. Ceuta and Melilla have very small samples, and Navarre, La Rioja and Cantabria small ones. The survey moved from home visits to telephone in 2022, so earlier years are not strictly comparable.
No adjustment: every figure is copied as the Ministry or Eurostat published it. The one exception is the national number of people waiting for a specialist, which is the sum of the regional figures. Nothing is estimated.

Can I use or republish this data?

Yes. The table is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY 4.0). You may reuse it, also in news stories and commercial work, if you credit the source with a link to this page. Suggested citation: Yelamo Vera, P. (2026). Healthcare waiting times in Spain by region: the official data. drpedroyelamo.com.

Download the full dataset, with the number of people waiting and the 2024 figures: or . The page is updated when the Ministry publishes new figures.

Waiting for an appointment and need advice now?

Dr. Pedro Yelamo Vera, a GP licensed in Spain, sees patients by video every day from 07:30 to 20:30 (Spain time), in English or Spanish, for urgent, non-emergency problems. In an emergency, call 112.

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Emergencies

Call 112, or go straight to hospital urgencias, for chest pain, severe trouble breathing, signs of a stroke (a drooping face, a weak arm, slurred speech), heavy bleeding, a seizure, fainting, or a severe allergic reaction. Emergencies are never put on a waiting list. 112 is free from any phone and answers in English.

Frequently asked questions

How many days does it take to see a GP in Spain?

In 2025, 21.8% of people saw a public GP on the day they asked or the next day. Those who had to wait because no earlier slot was free waited 9.15 days on average, according to the Ministry of Health's Barómetro Sanitario. In late March 2026 the average was 10.27 days.

Which region of Spain has the shortest waiting lists?

It depends on the list. The Basque Country has the shortest GP wait (4.91 days in 2025). Madrid has the shortest surgery wait (50 days). Melilla, La Rioja and the Basque Country have the shortest specialist waits (December 2025).

How long is the waiting list for an operation in Spain?

On 31 December 2025, 853,740 people were waiting for non-urgent surgery. They had waited 122 days on average, and 21.6% more than six months. Andalusia had the longest average wait (173 days) and Madrid the shortest (50 days).

How long do you wait for a specialist in Spain?

People on the list for a first specialist visit had waited 102 days on average on 31 December 2025, and 61.5% more than 60 days. The Canary Islands had the longest average wait (162 days).

Do waiting lists apply in an emergency?

No. Emergencies are treated straight away at hospital urgencias, with or without a health card. Call 112 for chest pain, trouble breathing, signs of a stroke, heavy bleeding or a severe allergic reaction.

When will these figures be updated?

When the Ministry of Health publishes new data: the SISLE-SNS report for 30 June 2026 and the full Barómetro Sanitario for 2026. The date of the last check is shown under the tables.

Sources

This guide is general information. It does not replace the advice of your doctor. In an emergency, call 112.

Medical Citations & Sources

This content is written and reviewed by a licensed physician with reference to the following official health authorities.