Where to get medical care on the Costa Blanca North: public hospitals, private clinics and the SIP card

Your address decides which hospital is yours

Public healthcare in the Valencian Community is divided into departments. Wherever you are registered as a resident, that is where you belong.

The first door into the system is not the hospital but your centro de salud, the local health centre. There you are assigned a family doctor and a paediatrician, and you get referrals to specialists and prescriptions. You reach the hospital with a referral or through A&E.

How long it takes to reach a hospital

Minutes by car from the town hall, without traffic. In summer and at rush hour the drive takes longer. From any Marina Baixa town to its public hospital it is no more than 23 minutes, and from the northern towns the private hospitals in Benidorm are even closer. From Calpe any of the hospitals is about half an hour away.

Hospital Marina Baixa: what is changing

Hospital Marina Baixa in Villajoyosa serves our whole area, from Benidorm to Altea. It currently has 285 beds. The hospital is being rebuilt in three phases, and once all the works are finished it will have 398 beds. The first phase, with 41 new beds, is planned to finish at the end of 2026.

For a buyer this is good news: the area is growing, and the hospital is growing with it.

Hospital de Dénia: if you choose Calpe or Jávea

Since 1 February 2024 Hospital de Dénia has again been run directly by the regional health ministry, after 15 years under a concession. The department serves about 187 000 people, and more than a third of them are foreigners. For residents of Calpe this is your hospital, although Calpe has its own health centre.

The SIP card: your pass into public healthcare

SIP is the individual health card of the Valencian Community. With it you are assigned a family doctor at your health centre. The card is issued to people whose right to public healthcare is already established: through work, through a pension or through the convenio especial.

How to get it.

1. Register as a resident at the town hall (empadronamiento) at the address of your home.

2. Establish your right to public healthcare: you are insured in the Spanish system, receive a pension or are a family member of an insured person. The right is confirmed by an INSS document. If you do not work, the route is the convenio especial, described below.

3. Go to your centro de salud with your identity document and your certificate of registration.

The card is free. You only pay for a replacement if you lose it.

If you do not work in Spain

It is a common case: someone moves to live on the coast but does not work here and does not receive a Spanish pension. For them there is the convenio especial, an agreement with the public system for a monthly fee.

Conditions: at least one year of continuous residence in Spain before applying, registration in any municipality and no other right to public healthcare.

Fee: 60 euros a month up to age 65 and 157 euros a month from 65.

What it covers: family doctor, specialists, hospital, emergency transport, with no co-payments and no waiting periods.

What it does not cover: prescription medicines outside hospital are paid in full.

In the first year, while this agreement is not yet available, private insurance remains the option.

Private insurance: what it must include

For non-lucrative residence (residencia no lucrativa) the law requires public or private health insurance with a company authorised to operate in Spain. That is what the official Extranjería information sheet says (updated in May 2025).

Many consulates add two conditions to their document lists: a policy without co-payments (sin copagos) and without waiting periods (sin carencias). Before buying a policy, check the list of your own consulate. The same policy covers your first year of living here, while you cannot yet apply for the convenio especial.

With private insurance you see a specialist without a referral and usually sooner. After moving into the public system you can keep the policy: one does not get in the way of the other, the public hospital stays yours and the private clinic gives you quick appointments.

Private hospitals and clinics

Benidorm itself has two large private hospitals, and people come to them from the whole area.

Hospital Clínica Benidorm (HCB), Avenida Alfonso Puchades 8, line for international patients in Russian 900 87 88 50.

IMED Levante, Calle Doctor Ramón y Cajal 7, with its own A&E (urgencias).

If you need help at night or at the weekend

If you feel ill right now, call 112. It is the single emergency number in Spain and across the European Union.

If you do not need an ambulance but cannot wait until morning, you have three options.

A&E (urgencias) at Hospital Marina Baixa in Villajoyosa.

Out-of-hours point (punto de atención continuada, PAC): it sees patients when your health centre is closed. In the Marina Baixa department there are such points in Benidorm, Villajoyosa, Altea, L'Alfàs del Pi and La Nucía.

With private insurance: HCB Benidorm, emergency line 96 585 38 50, own ambulance 900 380 088.

Pharmacies

In Spain medicines are sold only in pharmacies, which you recognise by the green cross. A prescription from a public-system doctor is stored on your SIP card: the pharmacy reads it and no paper is needed.

At night and at weekends the duty pharmacy (farmacia de guardia) is open. The duty rota by town across the province is published by the Alicante College of Pharmacists on its website; the door of a closed pharmacy usually shows the address of the nearest one on duty.

If you are an EU citizen

The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is for temporary stays; it does not replace registration when you move. An EU pensioner who receives a pension from their own country obtains form S1 there and registers it in Spain: from then on they are treated here on the same terms as Spaniards and receive the SIP card.

What it means for a buyer

If being close to medical care matters to you, the whole Benidorm area works well: a public hospital in Villajoyosa, two private ones in Benidorm, a health centre in every town and out-of-hours points in five of them. Three projects I would look at with this in mind.

Allonbay Hills in Villajoyosa: about 8 minutes to the public hospital, about 14 to HCB; one-bedroom apartments from 240 000 euros, about 470 metres on foot to the sea (price list 06.10.2026).

Benidorm Hills in Benidorm: about 10 minutes to the public hospital and about 10 to HCB as well; two-bedroom apartments from 375 000 euros (price list 30.09.2026).

Seaview 6 in Sierra Cortina, Finestrat: about 11 minutes to the public hospital, about 11 to HCB; three-bedroom townhouse from 525 000 euros, with a bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor (price list 31.08.2026).

Prices exclude VAT. I help you not only choose a home but also understand how you will live here. Why you are better off with me.

The «Life in the region» series comes out on Wednesdays; the next issue is about schools and education, on 4 November.

How I calculated

Assignment of towns to departments from the official Conselleria de Sanitat list (March 2024). Driving minutes calculated on 19.10.2026 with the OSRM router on OpenStreetMap: from the town hall (for L'Alfàs del Pi, from the centre of the municipality) or from the project location to the hospital entrance, without traffic or traffic lights. IMED Levante address from the network's patient guide (2024). Beds and refurbishment dates for Hospital Marina Baixa from the progress report of 21.11.2025. Hospital de Dénia figures from the report of 27.01.2024. SIP card procedure from the Generalitat Valenciana description; convenio especial conditions and fee from the Ministry of Health page (Real Decreto 576/2013). Insurance requirement from the Extranjería information sheet (Hoja 6, May 2025, RD 1155/2024). List of the department's out-of-hours points from El Periòdic. HCB phone numbers and centres from the network's website as of 17.10.2026. Project prices exclude VAT, from price lists with the dates shown.