Booking a GP appointment in Barcelona: your CAP, La Meva Salut and the phone

You book a GP appointment in Barcelona at your CAP: online through La Meva Salut, at citasalut.gencat.cat if you don't have access yet, by ringing the centre or at the desk. If your CAP is run by the ICS, also on 93 326 89 01, Monday to Friday except public holidays, from 8 to 21 hours.

Once the health card is in your hand, or about to arrive, the question for anyone living in Barcelona for a few months changes: so how do I actually see a doctor? Everything goes through the CAP, the primary care centre assigned to your address, and you can reach it without queuing. This is what the Catalan Health Service (CatSalut) and the Catalan Health Institute (ICS) explain. There is no medical advice here: just the paperwork.

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First, which CAP is yours

You don't choose at the start: CatSalut assigns you a CAP according to your address, and there you are given a family doctor, the classic GP, a nurse and, if there are children, a paediatrician. To find out which one is yours, CatSalut has a search tool, Quin CAP correspon a una adreça, which asks for four things: municipality, type of street, street name and number.

If you are still applying for the individual health card, the TSI, start there: we explain it in the health card guide. Almost everything below assumes you already have it, because it is the key to La Meva Salut and to booking online.

Online: La Meva Salut

La Meva Salut is the personal health space of the Catalan public health system, on the web and as an app for Android, iOS and Huawei. To get in you must be 16 or over, have the TSI and an identification method: idCAT Mòbil, a digital certificate, an electronic DNI or a password of its own. That password is requested in person at the CAP, with the TSI and an official ID (DNI, NIE or passport), and you need an email address and a mobile phone to receive the SMS codes.

Inside, appointments are under ‘Cites i agenda’, section ‘Sol·licitud de cites i consultes’, option ‘Cites i consultes d'atenció primària’. You don't get a blank diary but a list of common reasons, such as questions about a treatment, renewing medication, a wound dressing, an admin matter or sick leave, and each one leads down its own path. If yours isn't there, you can ask for an in-person or remote appointment with your doctor or nurse. CatSalut adds a practical tip: if you have two reasons for the same professional, there is no need to book two appointments.

According to the ICS, La Meva Salut also lets you send an eConsulta, a message to your reference professional with attachments, and check reports, test results, your current medication plan and your vaccines.

Without La Meva Salut: Cita Salut, the phone and the desk

If you haven't signed up to La Meva Salut yet, the ICS points to citasalut.gencat.cat, the reason-based booking site: you explain why you want the visit and the system suggests the type of appointment and the most suitable professional.

By phone or at the desk it works the same way, except that the admin staff ask the questions. According to CatSalut, the tool they use covers almost 300 reasons for consultation, for adults and children, and adjusts the offer to your age, whether you find it hard to get about or whether you need sick leave.

If your CAP is run by the ICS there is also a call centre, 93 326 89 01, to book, change or cancel appointments Monday to Friday except public holidays, from 8 to 21 hours. Each centre's direct number is on its page on the ICS website.

Changing doctor or CAP

Your assigned doctor isn't for life. CatSalut recognises free choice: you can ask for another family doctor, paediatrician or nurse, at the same centre or another one, and also for a CAP other than the one assigned to your address. To change professional within your centre, you apply at your own CAP; to change CAP, at the new centre where you want to be seen. You fill in a form, downloaded from the CatSalut website or picked up there, and if the centre is run by the ICS you can also do it online or through La Meva Salut.

If they don't answer on the spot, the reply comes within ten working days at most, and if that time passes with no news the request counts as accepted: it is then worth ringing the CAP to find out who your new doctor is. CatSalut's FAQ adds a couple of details: a doctor cannot take unlimited patients, so if the one you chose is full you pick another at the centre, and after a change you have to wait a year to choose again.

And if you move house after choosing, you tell the centre you chose, or do it through La Meva Salut.

When it can't wait

Booked appointments are, according to CatSalut, for health problems that don't need immediate, urgent attention, admin queries and check-ups. Outside CAP hours, the ICS points to 061 Salut Respon, which answers questions, handles some paperwork and, if needed, sends you to the most suitable centre. For a life-threatening emergency, 112. Both run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Then there are the CUAPs, the primary care urgent centres. According to Barcelona International Welcome, the city's website for newcomers, they are open 24 hours all year round, deal with urgent problems of low and medium complexity in collaboration with hospital emergency departments and the SEM, and recommend phoning before you go. The same site says 061 covers the whole of Catalonia and offers translation and interpreting, which helps in the first months.

Checked

Checked in October 2026 on: CatSalut (primary care appointments; booking online, updated 22.10.2025; booking by phone or at the desk, updated 20.10.2025; La Meva Salut; Quin CAP correspon a una adreça; free choice procedure, updated 16.09.2026, and its FAQ), the Catalan Health Institute (Contacta amb el teu CAP, Atenció Primària Barcelona ciutat) and Barcelona International Welcome (health emergencies).