Spain's first medical strike round ran from February 16 to 20. The numbers are in.

299,430 medical acts suspended across Andalucía. Total direct cost to the public health system: €39.4 million. In Málaga province alone, 200,000 appointments were cancelled in five days. At Hospital Costa del Sol in Marbella, 70% of doctors and 80% of medical residents participated, among the highest rates in the region.

The Ministry of Health made no official contact with the unions during those five days. The union leader said they would suspend the action "if a negotiation horizon exists." That horizon does not exist. Round 2 starts March 16.

Two things were worth watching after Round 1 ended.

The PP party met with the strike committee on February 26. The ERC met on February 27. The purpose: to discuss blocking the contested Estatuto Marco — Framework Statute — reform in Congress. Neither meeting produced a deal. The March round is confirmed.

One development that did move: a court in Murcia ruled that minimum service requirements for the strike could be reduced to festivo — public holiday — levels. The BOJA order covering Andalucía set the minimum service floor for the February round. Whether the Murcia ruling influences how Andalucía sets its minimums for March remains unclear. But the precedent exists. Round 2 may have fewer services legally guaranteed than Round 1. (Confirmed March 2026.)

The strike dates look discrete on a calendar: five days in February, five in March, four in April, five in May, five in June.

They are not discrete for anyone whose appointment was cancelled in Round 1.

A non-urgent appointment cancelled during Round 1 gets rescheduled into the first available slot the system can offer. That slot sits behind the full Round 1 backlog. It has to be scheduled around Round 2 (March 16-20). And Round 3 (April 27-30). The system does not have sufficient capacity to absorb 200,000 cancelled Málaga appointments quickly. The backlog clears slowly. The next round arrives before it does.

For anyone with a specialist referral waiting, a follow-up for a chronic condition, or a diagnostic test that was pushed: the five-month calendar is not five separate disruptions. It is one continuous disruption that restarts before the previous one resolves.

The strike has made visible something that was there before it started.

Hospital Costa del Sol in Marbella serves 460,000 people with 394 beds — 0.86 beds per 1,000 inhabitants. The Andalucía average is 1.9. The national average is 2.4. Radiology at Hospital Costa del Sol is funded at €913,000 annually; a hospital of comparable size in Seville runs €1.46 million (37% more). There are 120 nurses fewer than Servicio Andaluz de Salud — Andalucía Health Service — standards require for a hospital of this size. An expansion wing sits with empty operating theatres and unused consultation rooms because the staff to fill them were never hired. (Confirmed January 2026.)

The doctors who walked out on March 16 will return on March 21. The structural staffing position at Hospital Costa del Sol does not change between those dates.

If you had an appointment cancelled in Round 1: Do not wait for the system to contact you. Call your centro de salud — health centre — directly and ask whether your appointment has been rescheduled and, if so, when. The system does not automatically reschedule appointments around subsequent strike dates. You may have a rescheduled date that now falls inside the March 16-20 window.

If you have ongoing non-urgent care in the public system: Map your situation against the full calendar. March 16-20. April 27-30. May 18-22. June 15-19. Any non-urgent appointment, follow-up, or referral is vulnerable on those dates. The productive question is not whether your appointment will be affected. It is unclear which round will affect it.

If you have private insurance: Nothing changes for Round 2. Worth one call to your insurer: ask specifically whether your plan covers specialist referrals, not just GP consultations. The gap some people discovered after Round 1 was exactly that — GP appointments ran fine, specialist access didn't.

If you're considering private cover and haven't yet: Waiting periods determine what you can actually use by March 16. Most providers can have GP and consultation cover active within days. Surgery and specialist cover carries a longer período de carencia — waiting period — sometimes three to six months. Signing up on March 15 will not help for a specialist appointment on March 17. It will help with planned care from April onward. Sanitas basic plans start at around €22 a month; full no-copay cover runs €57-80 (Confirmed February 2026).

Helicopteros Sanitarios, which opened a new clinic in Fuengirola on Calle Matagorda at the start of March, offers 24-hour home doctor visits and private walk-in access in English along this stretch of coast, useful for Round 2 if you need GP-level care outside the public system.

If you need emergency care: Call 112. Emergency departments are running at full capacity throughout every strike week and are not affected by the walkout.

Numbers worth saving: Salud Responde — Andalucía's health helpline: 955 54 50 60 Emergencies: 112 Sanitas: 900 10 19 00 Adeslas: 900 30 03 01

Two phrases for navigating this in the public system:

"¿Mi cita se ha reprogramado o sigue pendiente?" — Has my appointment been rescheduled or is it still pending?

Huelga médica — doctors' strike (the phrase you will hear in every scheduling conversation this spring)

Go deeper: The full picture on navigating both healthcare systems — what each covers, how to register, and what to do when things go wrong: Healthcare in Spain: Complete Guide for Expats 2026. For Marbella specifically, including Hospital Costa del Sol, private clinics, and how to access both systems: Healthcare in Marbella. If you're weighing private cover: Private Insurance for Expats in Spain.

Round 1 suspended 299,430 medical acts across Andalucía and cost the public health system €39.4 million. The Ministry and the unions have not spoken since. Round 2 starts Monday, and a Murcia court ruling means the minimum service floor for that round may be lower than it was in February. For anyone managing non-urgent care in the public system, this is not a series of five separate weeks: each cancellation reschedules into a calendar that has four more blocked periods between now and June. Call your centro de salud before March 16. The appointment from Round 1 may not be where you left it.

One more thing                                                                                               If the strike calendar has surfaced something you've been putting off, a specialist referral you can't track down, a diagnostic appointment that keeps getting rescheduled, a situation where you're not sure which system to use or how to push it forward, we're opening a small beta of the WaypointSur Healthcare Navigator.

Not a helpline. Someone who knows which clinic, which doctor, how to get the appointment, and what to say when you get there. English throughout.

The first cohort is limited. https://guides.waypointsur.com/navigator

Not bad for a Monday — A. and the WaypointSur team with private cita previa, just in case.