Choosing a hospital in Spain

 

 

When choosing a hospital in Spain the most important factors are firstly to find out whether they speak your language and secondly to enquire about their cleanliness, safety and post-operative infection rates.  All hospitals should carry out basic infection control surveillance and if you are concerned about a hospital's cleanliness and infection rates (like MRSA - methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), ask to see their most recent inspection report by the Ministry.  You could also ask whether the hospital records, monitors and evaluates all accidents, clinical incidents and near misses.

 

Enquire about the hospital's certificate of quality, which in the European Union is the ISO standard.  In the UK the assessment and regulation of all hospitals and clinics is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive, the Healthcare Commission and local primary care organisations who conduct practice inspections.  In Spain, the institution in charge of healthcare control is the Ministerio de Sanidad y Consumo.

There is a wide range of private hospitals in Spain, particularly in the Costa del Sol, which boasts some of the best in the world.  Private health care is good in Spain, and there are many advantages such as wider choice of medical practitioners and hospitals, the likelihood of seeing English-speaking professionals, and the privacy and little/no waiting time that going private affords.

 

Find out what the hospital’s most frequent operations are to ensure that you are in the best place possible for your procedure, for example, some may be renowned for specialist neurosurgery capabilities, while others may be specialists in children’s medicine or cardiac surgery.  For cosmetic surgery or dentistry procedures ask how many HDU beds the clinic/hospital has if anything goes wrong, and what happens regarding pricing should complications arise and you need to stay in hospital longer?  Ask to see some ‘before and after’ pictures and read some of their patient testimonials.

 

Spain boasts some top class surgeons but it is essential to know what qualifications and accreditations the surgeons and doctors should have in order to practice and then to clarify that the professionals you will be seeing have these in place.  Any surgeon who comes to Spain to practice from another country must satisfy the Ministry for Education and Science that they are properly qualified.  Before committing to have a procedure, prepare a list of questions to ask the consultant.

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