Hospitals on the Costa del Sol, area by area: public, private and 24-hour care

Which hospital serves each stretch of the Costa del Sol, from Estepona in the west to Nerja in the east, as it stands in October 2026. This guide sets out the public hospital each town is assigned to and what it offers, where the 24-hour emergency departments are, the private hospitals that are open around the clock, the numbers to call, how GP appointments work, and how cover works for a resident and for a visitor. The facts come from the Andalusian Health Service, the national hospital catalogue and the hospitals’ own pages, linked where they appear.

How public healthcare is organised on the coast

All the public hospitals on this coast are run by the Andalusian Health Service, the SAS. The Costa del Sol’s own health agency, which ran the hospital in Marbella and the high-resolution hospitals in Estepona and Benalmádena, was dissolved on 1 January 2022, and its centres joined the SAS.

Every town has health centres for everyday care, and each health centre has a reference hospital, the public hospital its patients are sent to. The coast has three kinds of public hospital. General hospitals have every department. High-resolution hospitals (hospitales de alta resolución) are smaller and built around a 24-hour emergency department, outpatient clinics and day surgery. Specialist outpatient centres have consulting rooms and no beds.

The bed counts below are from the Ministry of Health’s national hospital catalogue, in its 2025 edition, with the figures at the end of 2024.

Estepona

Estepona has its own high-resolution hospital, the Hospital de Alta Resolución de Estepona, on Calle Irene Villa González. Its emergency department has been open around the clock since July 2022, and it treated 40,163 emergencies in 2025. The laboratory and radiology have worked 24 hours a day since December 2025, a digestive endoscopy unit opened in February 2026, and its operating theatres started in March 2026. In October 2025 the regional government approved 58 more staff, to bring 80% of its planned services into use.

For admissions and the full range of specialists, the health centres of Estepona, Cancelada, Casares, Manilva and Sabinillas all have the Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol in Marbella as their reference hospital. Estepona also has two private hospitals with round-the-clock emergency departments, listed further down.

Marbella, San Pedro and Benahavís

The Hospital Universitario Costa del Sol, on the A-7 at kilometre 187, east of Marbella town, is the general hospital for the western half of the coast. It has a 24-hour emergency department for adults and children, and 408 beds in the national catalogue. Its area covers Marbella, Benahavís, Istán, Ojén, Estepona, Casares, Manilva, Mijas and Fuengirola, as the hospital sets out, close to half a million people by the regional government’s count.

Its expansion was inaugurated on 3 March 2026: more than €100 million, about 40,000 m² of new building, 16 operating theatres, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and assisted reproduction, and 276 new posts.

The health centres of San Pedro de Alcántara, La Campana in Nueva Andalucía, Las Chapas, Benahavís and Marbella town all refer to it. The hospital has volunteer interpreters, morning and afternoon, seven days a week, in English, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish and Arabic. You ask the doctor treating you, or the information desk in the main hall.

Fuengirola and Mijas

Neither Fuengirola nor Mijas has a public hospital. Both use the Hospital Costa del Sol in Marbella for emergencies and admissions, and the health centres of Los Pacos, Los Boliches, Fuengirola-Oeste, Las Lagunas, La Cala and Mijas Pueblo all refer to it.

Mijas has the CARE Mijas, a specialist outpatient centre on Avenida de las Margaritas that opened in 2005 and serves more than 110,000 people in Mijas and Fuengirola. It has consulting rooms and no emergency department. There is no private hospital in Fuengirola or Mijas in the national catalogue. Benalmádena, next door, has a public and a private emergency department open around the clock.

Benalmádena and Torremolinos

The Hospital de Alta Resolución de Benalmádena, on Avenida del Arroyo Hondo, has a 24-hour emergency department and is run as part of the Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria in Málaga, known as the Clínico, whose emergency unit covers it. It opened in 2007, the first high-resolution hospital in the province.

The health centres of Arroyo de la Miel and Torrequebrada in Benalmádena, and of La Carihuela and San Miguel in Torremolinos, have the Clínico as their reference hospital. Torremolinos also has the Hospital Marítimo, an 89-bed hospital of the Clínico’s for in-patients, with no emergency department listed.

Málaga city and Rincón de la Victoria

Málaga has the two largest hospitals on this coast, both with emergency departments open 24 hours a day:

• Hospital Universitario Regional de Málaga, still known as Carlos Haya. Its Hospital General has 523 beds, the Materno-Infantil 349, with a 24-hour paediatric emergency department for children up to 14, and the Hospital Civil 201. The adult emergency department is in Pavilion B of the Hospital General.
• Hospital Universitario Virgen de la Victoria, the Clínico, on the university campus at Teatinos, with 657 beds and an emergency department open every day of the year.

Which of the two is your reference hospital depends on the district of the city. Rincón de la Victoria has no hospital, and its health centres refer to the Regional.

A third hospital is being built. The Hospital Virgen de la Esperanza, on the site of the Hospital Civil, had its first stone laid on 2 February 2026, with €543 million of construction. The tender describes 815 rooms, 48 operating theatres, 80 intensive care beds and an emergency department with 61 observation beds, built over 75 months. No opening date has been given.

Nerja, Torrox and the Axarquía

Nerja and Torrox are served by the Hospital de la Axarquía in Vélez-Málaga, a district hospital with 219 beds and a hospital emergency service. It is the reference hospital for the health centres of Nerja, Torrox, Torre del Mar, Vélez-Málaga and Algarrobo. There is no hospital in Nerja or Torrox, and no private general hospital in the Axarquía in the national catalogue.

Private hospitals open around the clock

These private hospitals state on their own pages that their emergency department is open 24 hours a day, west to east, with their beds in the national catalogue:

• Estepona: Hospiten Estepona, 74 beds, and Vithas Xanit Estepona, 10 beds, for adults over 14
• Marbella: Quirónsalud Marbella, 75 beds, for adults, children and obstetrics, Hospital Ochoa, 22 beds, and Recoletas Salud Marbella, 22 beds
• Benalmádena: Vithas Xanit Internacional, 125 beds, for adults and children
• Torremolinos: HM Santa Elena, 90 beds
• Málaga: Quirónsalud Málaga, 160 beds, Vithas Málaga, 100 beds, and HM Málaga, 105 beds

Private care is paid for by the patient or by an insurer. A private policy is also what the non-lucrative visa asks for, unless you hold an S1, as the non-lucrative visa guide explains. Each new development’s page lists what is near it, some with the nearest hospital, on the new developments page.

In an emergency, and day to day

• 112 is the single emergency number for health, fire and police, free from any phone.
• 061 is the health emergency line, for when a life is at risk, 24 hours a day.
• 951 031 437 is the Málaga province number for urgent problems that are not life-threatening.
• Salud Responde, on 955 54 50 60, answers 24 hours a day. It books GP appointments, gives health advice and offers phone translation in 39 languages.

GP appointments can be booked online through ClicSalud+, in the App Salud Andalucía or the Salud Responde app, by phone on 955 54 50 60, or at the health centre’s front desk. You can hold one appointment at a time, and a problem that cannot wait goes to the health centre on the day.

The pharmacies on duty out of hours, the farmacias de guardia, work on a rota posted at every pharmacy, and the Málaga pharmacists’ association has a finder by town and date.

Who can use the public system

Residents. Once you live here with public cover, you register with the SAS at your health centre for a health card. The first application needs the form, your identity document and a certificate of registration on the town’s padrón, as the SAS sets out. A UK state pensioner registers an S1 with the Spanish social security office first.

Residents without public cover can join the state’s own scheme, the convenio especial, after a year of residence, registered on the padrón and with no other cover. It costs €60 a month under 65 and €157 from 65, and prescriptions are not included. Retiring to the Costa del Sol sets out the S1 and the convenio especial in more detail.

Visitors from the UK use the GHIC for necessary state care on the same terms as Spanish patients, paying 50% of the price of a prescription, or 10% with a UK state pension, as gov.uk explains. It does not cover private care or repatriation.

How I handle it

When we compare areas, I give you the drive from each home to the nearest 24-hour emergency department, public and private, alongside the drive to the beach and the shops. For a buyer who plans to retire here, or who has someone in the family who needs regular treatment, I check which hospital an address is assigned to, and how far away it is, before the shortlist is drawn up rather than after. Book a call and we can start with the areas that fit. Buying with me sets out how I work.

Common questions