Healthcare in Madeira: hospitals, health centres, pharmacies and what it costs

Most people who need a doctor on Madeira do not need an ambulance. They need a prescription refilled, a cut closed, an ear infection looked at, or a diagnosis for the stomach that has ruined day three. The island handles all of that, but the obvious move, driving to the big hospital in Funchal, is often the wrong one, and it can cost you a fee that the right move would not.

Below is which door to knock on, what opens at what hour, what you pay, and what the European Health Insurance Card does and does not do for you here.

112 is the emergency number across Portugal and the rest of the EU, and it reaches the ambulance, the fire service and the police. On Madeira there are also direct numbers worth having in your phone: the Regional Civil Protection Service on 291 700 112, the Red Cross on 291 741 115, and SANAS, the sea rescue service, on 291 230 112.

Calling from the interior is different from calling from a street. Mobile coverage in the deep ravines and on the north coast roads is patchy, so walking a hundred metres to open ground often gets you through faster than walking towards a road. The terrain also means a mountain call-out is a technical rescue rather than a drive-up, and the response runs to hours rather than minutes. Give the operator a trail name and a levada number; an address means nothing up there. Our guide to self-guided levada walks lists the trail codes, and the safety guide covers the sea and the roads.

The public health service in the region is SESARAM, and it runs three hospitals. Only one of them takes emergencies.

Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, Avenida Luís de Camões 57, 9004-514 Funchal, telephone 291 705 600. The adult emergency department is open 24 hours a day, every day of the year, and the emergency service line is 291 705 666. Gynaecology and obstetrics emergencies are on the fourth floor rather than in the main emergency area.

The other two are not emergency hospitals and you should not turn up at either with an injury. Hospital dos Marmeleiros, Estrada dos Marmeleiros, 9050-495 Monte, telephone 291 705 730, has a reception open 08:00 to 22:00. Hospital Dr. João de Almada is on 291 780 300.

The emergency department has run on Manchester triage since June 2005. A nurse asks a set of protocol questions on arrival and gives you a colour, and the colour, not the queue, decides the order you are seen in. That is worth knowing before you spend six hours in a waiting room feeling ignored: if you were coded green, everyone ahead of you was coded worse.

SESARAM publishes live waiting times for the hospital and for the health centres at sesaram.pt. Checking it before you set off can save you the drive, or send you to a quieter health centre instead.

The region has 47 health centres grouped into seven zones, which means most villages have one, and several run an urgent service that handles exactly the things that send visitors to a hospital.

Four of them take urgent cases 24 hours a day, seven days a week:

• São Vicente, 291 840 060
• Calheta, 291 820 700
• Machico, 291 969 132 or 969 380 433
• Porto Santo, 291 980 060

Another four cover the day and the evening only:

• Câmara de Lobos, 291 009 250, 08:00 to 22:00
• Ribeira Brava, 291 950 200, 08:00 to 22:00
• Santana, 291 570 300, 08:00 to 22:00
• Porto Moniz, 291 850 170, 08:00 to 22:00 on weekdays only

In Funchal, the open-access clinic for urgent but non-emergency problems is at the Centro de Saúde do Bom Jesus on 291 208 700, seen from 09:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00 on weekdays, with the last patient taken half an hour before each close. It covers the Bom Jesus, São Roque and Monte areas of the city.

Two reasons to start here rather than at the hospital. You will be seen faster for anything that is not an emergency. And if the doctor decides you do need the hospital, you go there referred, which changes what you pay.

The European Health Insurance Card does not make treatment free. It entitles you to medically necessary care on the same terms and at the same cost as a local resident, which in Portugal means you still pay the user fee, the taxa moderadora. Portugal's own government guidance is blunt about the gap: without the card you can still walk into any health centre or hospital, but you may have to pay for the care and claim it back at home, and if you left without your card you can ask your own country for a Provisional Replacement Certificate. The card also buys you nothing at a private hospital.

Madeira runs its own fee rules through SESARAM, and the rule at the emergency department is narrower than most visitors expect. SESARAM's own leaflet says the emergency department charges the fee to the patient the triage nurse codes green. Green is the colour for a case that turned out not to be urgent. Anything the nurse grades above that is not charged at the door, and any tests or treatments you are given carry their own fees on top.

The published exemptions are long, and three of them matter to travellers. Children and young people up to and including 18 are exempt. So is any patient sent in by a doctor at a health centre. So are students on production of a student card.

So: if it is genuinely urgent, go to the emergency department and do not think about money. If it is not urgent, go to a health centre first. You will be seen sooner, and if they send you on, the hospital visit carries no fee.

Bring your card, your passport and, if you have one, the name of the medicine you take rather than the brand. Brand names differ between countries and the chemical name is what a Portuguese doctor can act on.

Hospital CUF Madeira, the former Hospital Particular da Madeira, is at Avenida Mário Soares 143, 9000-783 Funchal, in the São Martinho district, telephone 291 003 300. Its Atendimento Permanente for adults is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, with general and internal medicine doctors on site and a list of specialties on call. There is parking at the building, and the Rotunda do Amparo bus stop nearby is served by urban routes including line 45. The group publishes live waiting times for its units on its own website.

It is a private hospital, so you pay, and the EHIC does not apply. Ask for the price before you are seen. It is the sensible choice when your travel insurance has a direct billing arrangement, when you want to be seen quickly for something that would be coded green at the public hospital, or when you need a specialist opinion inside your trip rather than after it. For a broken leg at two in the morning, the public emergency department is where the island's emergency capability actually sits.

If you have not sorted cover yet, our travel insurance guide covers the hiking and water sports exclusions that catch people out here, which is the clause that matters most on an island where the headline activity is walking above a drop.

The region has 65 licensed pharmacies spread across all eleven municipalities, and the regional health institute IASAÚDE keeps the register and the duty roster. You can search both by municipality at apps.iasaude.pt.

Normal pharmacy hours are shop hours, and outside them the municipalities run a rotating duty system, one pharmacy at a time. Every pharmacy posts the current duty pharmacy on its door, which in practice is faster than any website, because the roster changes daily and the online lookup can come back empty for a date it has not been loaded with. If you are in Funchal, walking to the nearest pharmacy to read the notice is a reasonable first step even when it is shut.

A pharmacy is the right first stop for sunburn, bites, stomach upsets and minor wounds, and the counter will tell you when something needs a doctor instead. SESARAM also publishes two national medicines lines: the Linha do Medicamento on 800 222 444 and, for medicines in pregnancy, 800 202 844.

If it is bites you are worried about rather than illness, we have a separate piece on mosquitoes and dengue risk.

Madeira is small on a map and slow in a car. The island's only emergency department is in Funchal, and the centre of the island is a mountain range. From Porto Moniz in the far northwest, the hospital is the whole width of the island away by road, and the local health centre shuts at 22:00 and does not open at weekends at all. From Porto Santo, the answer is an Air Force helicopter: the island has a health centre and no hospital, and serious cases are flown to Funchal.

None of that should stop anyone visiting the north or crossing to Porto Santo, and the Porto Santo ferry guide covers that trip properly. It is worth a thought when you book, though, if you travel with a heart condition, a pregnancy near term, or a parent in their eighties.

For most of those trips the answer is simply to stay on the Funchal side. The hills immediately above the city give you cooler nights and a view over the bay while leaving you a short drive from the centre, the airport road and both hospitals. Madeira with Views lets rental properties in exactly that band above Funchal. Our where to stay guide sets that area against the alternatives.

Searches for a new Madeira hospital turn up a building site, not a place you can go. The Hospital Central e Universitário da Madeira is under construction on the edge of Funchal and will replace Nélio Mendonça, with 607 beds and eleven operating theatres. The regional government said in September 2025 that the hospital will be in full operation at the end of 2029, with the first patients moving across in 2028. Until then, the emergency department is where it has always been, on Avenida Luís de Camões.

What is the emergency number in Madeira? 112, the same as everywhere in the EU. It covers ambulance, fire and police. For sea rescue you can also call SANAS directly on 291 230 112.

Where is the hospital in Funchal? Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, Avenida Luís de Camões 57, on 291 705 600. It is the only hospital in the region with an emergency department, and it is open around the clock every day.

Does my European Health Insurance Card cover me on Madeira? It gives you public healthcare on the same terms as a resident, not free healthcare. You may still pay a user fee, and it does not work at the private hospital. Without it you can still be treated, but you may have to pay and claim the money back at home.

Can I get a doctor outside Funchal? Yes. Health centres at São Vicente, Calheta, Machico and Porto Santo take urgent cases 24 hours a day, and Câmara de Lobos, Ribeira Brava, Santana and Porto Moniz run daytime and evening urgent services. Check the live waiting times on the SESARAM site before you drive anywhere.

• Serviço de Saúde da Região Autónoma da Madeira (SESARAM): contacts, health centre contacts, Hospital Dr. Nélio Mendonça, emergency service, Manchester triage, live waiting times, and the user fee leaflet
• IASAÚDE, IP-RAM: pharmacy register and duty search
• Hospital CUF Madeira
• gov.pt guide to healthcare for European citizens in Portugal
• Regional Government of Madeira on the Hospital Central e Universitário da Madeira

All contact details and hours checked on 28 September 2026. Opening hours and fees change; confirm on the SESARAM site before you rely on them.