What is REMPe? Spain's electronic private prescription system, explained.

What REMPe stands for and what it does

REMPe stands for Receta Médica Privada electrónica — the electronic private medical prescription. It is run by the Consejo General de Colegios Oficiales de Médicos (CGCOM), the national federation that represents the regional medical colleges across Spain.

In simple terms: when a privately practising doctor in Spain prescribes you medication, the prescription is issued through REMPe rather than on paper. The doctor records the prescription against your identity in the REMPe system, you receive an access code, and any Spanish pharmacy can dispense it.

REMPe is the private equivalent of the public-system electronic prescription run by the Spanish Ministry of Health for patients on the Sistema Nacional de Salud. The two systems are separate but follow similar principles.

How REMPe replaced paper prescriptions

For most of the last century, Spanish private prescriptions were issued on paper — a printed form, often with a watermark, hand-signed by the doctor. The system worked but was open to abuse: forged prescriptions, lost prescriptions, and informal arrangements between doctors and patients that bypassed proper documentation.

From around 2016 onwards, CGCOM rolled out REMPe regionally. By 2023, REMPe was the standard route for almost all private prescriptions across mainland Spain, the Balearic Islands, and the Canary Islands. Paper private prescriptions still exist in some niche situations — particularly for some controlled medications, which use a separate system — but for the great majority of medications, REMPe is now the only way a private doctor can prescribe.

This matters for travellers because it means a Spanish private prescription is now a digital token, not a piece of paper. You cannot lose it, you cannot have it stolen, and you cannot leave it in your hotel room.

What happens when a Spanish doctor prescribes for you

The process is the same whether the consultation is in person or online. Step by step:

The whole process from prescription to medication in hand is usually under 24 hours — often under an hour if a pharmacy is open nearby.

How to collect REMPe medication at a pharmacy

Any Spanish pharmacy can dispense a REMPe prescription. The cross-cut green "+" sign over the door is universal across the country. You need three things:

• The medication name or the prescription reference — what was prescribed.
• Your identification — the same ID document you used during the consultation. For UK visitors, this is normally your passport.
• Your access code — the unique code emailed to you when the prescription was issued.

Pharmacy staff are familiar with REMPe and the process is routine. In a busy tourist area you may need to wait a few minutes; in a quieter pharmacy it can be under five.

You can also use the same access code at a different pharmacy if the first one does not stock the medication, or split the prescription across pharmacies for a partial collection. REMPe tracks what has and has not been dispensed.

REMPe and UK or EU patients

UK passport holders can use REMPe in Spain in exactly the same way as Spanish citizens. The system accepts passport numbers as identification, and any Spanish pharmacy will dispense to a UK visitor presenting a passport and an access code.

For EU citizens, the position is broadly similar — Spanish REMPe prescriptions are issued domestically and collected domestically, regardless of the patient's nationality.

What REMPe does not do is cross national borders. A REMPe prescription issued in Spain is valid at Spanish pharmacies, not at pharmacies in France, Portugal, or the UK. For cross-border prescribing within the EU, the relevant framework is Directive 2011/24/EU on patients' rights in cross-border healthcare, which sets out when a prescription issued in one EU member state can be honoured in another. The detail of how this works in practice — and which prescriptions qualify — is country-specific and outside the scope of this guide.

For UK patients in Spain, the practical implication is simple: a REMPe prescription is for medication you will collect in Spain, before you go home. It is not a prescription you can take back to a UK pharmacy.

What REMPe is not — limitations and exclusions

REMPe covers most private prescriptions but not all of them.

For most common medications prescribed by a private doctor in Spain to a private patient, none of these exclusions apply. REMPe is the route.

REMPe in The Holiday Doctor consultation

The Holiday Doctor consultation ends, when appropriate, with a REMPe prescription issued by our doctor. Our doctor is registered in Madrid (colegiado 282889105) and authorised to issue REMPe prescriptions.

How it works in practice:

• You complete the online consultation form (around five minutes).
• Our doctor reviews it the same day within consultation hours (9am to 7pm Monday to Friday, 12pm to 6pm Saturday and Sunday), often with a short call or email to clarify a clinical detail.
• If a prescription is appropriate, our doctor issues it through REMPe and emails the access code to you.
• You collect the medication at any Spanish pharmacy — your hotel concierge can usually point you to the nearest one.
• You are only charged the EUR 50 consultation fee if a prescription is issued. Initial assessment is free.

Important. REMPe is not a route to controlled drugs, weight-loss medication, anti-coagulants, or anything outside The Holiday Doctor's published scope. The consultation form will tell you, at no charge, if your medication is outside scope.