Going to the Doctor in Spain: What to Say and What They’ll Say Back

Every phrasebook has a page on going to the doctor, and every one of them teaches the same half of the conversation: me duele la cabeza, tengo fiebre, necesito un médico. That half is fine. You will get it out.

The problem is what comes back. The doctor asks a question, gives an instruction, explains a prescription — quickly, in the formal usted form you have used perhaps a dozen times, with vocabulary your course never covered. The moment when you most need to understand Spanish is exactly the moment your preparation stops.

So this guide covers both halves: what to say, and what they will say back.

How the system works

Your first port of call in Spain’s public health system is the centro de salud, the local health centre, where you are assigned a médico de familia or médico de cabecera — the equivalent of a GP. To register you normally need your tarjeta sanitaria, the health card issued by your region. It goes by different names in different places — in the Valencian Community, for example, everyone calls it the SIP. Registering usually means showing your empadronamiento and identity documents, which is why this post sits alongside our guides to empadronamiento and NIE, TIE and the cita previa.

Appointments are made by cita previa — online, through an app, or by phone. For anything urgent there is urgencias, the emergency department; for a genuine emergency, the number is 112.

Your half: saying what is wrong

Three structures cover most of what you need.

• Me duele… — …hurts. Me duele la garganta, my throat hurts. For plural parts, me duelen los oídos.
• Tengo… — I have… Tengo fiebre (a temperature), tengo tos (a cough), tengo náuseas.
• Estoy… — I am… (a state). Estoy mareado/mareada, I feel dizzy; estoy resfriado/resfriada, I have a cold.

Then say how long: desde hace tres días, for three days, or desde el lunes, since Monday. Say whether it is getting worse: va a peor. And say the thing the doctor most needs to know: soy alérgico/alérgica a… and estoy tomando…, I’m taking… Write these two down in advance if you need to.

Their half: the questions

Doctors will almost always address you as usted, so the verbs end in -a or -e where you might expect -as or -es. Listen for these:

• ¿Qué le pasa? / ¿Qué le trae por aquí? — What’s the matter? What brings you here?
• ¿Desde cuándo? — Since when?
• ¿Le duele aquí? — Does it hurt here?
• ¿Ha tenido fiebre? — Have you had a temperature?
• ¿Toma alguna medicación? — Are you taking any medication?
• ¿Es alérgico a algo? — Are you allergic to anything?
• Del uno al diez, ¿cuánto le duele? — From one to ten, how much does it hurt?

Their half: the instructions

During an examination the questions become commands, all in the usted imperative. This is the part learners find hardest, because the forms are unfamiliar and there is no time to think.