About a 6-minute read.
The six steps of the project, in the order they are processed
Your own aesthetic clinic opens on the day the region (comunidad autónoma) authorizes the center, and the premises, the team and the equipment are chosen to obtain that authorization. The project follows six steps, in this order; each one is explained further down.
- Decide which treatments you will offer. With medical treatments, the center is a healthcare center and needs prior authorization; without them, it is a beauty center and follows a different route (the difference, explained).
- Appoint the medical director. A physician registered with the medical association of the province, with a master’s degree in aesthetic medicine and liability insurance in force (what must be documented).
- Commission the floor plan and the activity report before the works. They are signed by an engineer or an architect and describe the center the inspection will visit. Before that, check that the premises allow healthcare use.
- Report the healthcare staff and the equipment to the health authority (Sanidad), with each professional’s qualifications and each device’s specifications (who counts as healthcare staff).
- Pass the inspection visit. It checks that the center as built matches the project submitted and that the premises are accessible.
- Receive the decision. With a compliant application file it arrives in 1 to 3 months; a list of required corrections adds 15 days to 1 month and a second visit (the two routes).
In the application files we have handled in recent years, the decision has arrived in 8 weeks on average, in every region. That is the observed average, and there is a reason for it: a complete application file avoids the request for corrections, which is what lengthens the decision.
Aesthetic medicine clinic or beauty center: two different routes
The first decision in the project is which treatments the center will offer, because it sets the procedure. Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) defines aesthetic medicine as the care unit “in which a physician is responsible for performing non-surgical treatments aimed at improving the appearance of the body or face.” A center that offers them is a healthcare center, and Spain’s general health law, the Ley General de Sanidad, in its article 29.1 (in Spanish), requires it to obtain “prior administrative authorization for its installation and operation.”
A beauty center without medical treatments follows a different route. “Beauty salons and institutes and aesthetic treatment rooms” (heading 972.2) are listed in the annex to Ley 12/2012 (in Spanish), which prevents them from being required to hold a “prior license for installations, operation or activity” if the premises do not exceed 750 m² of usable floor area for display and sale to the public. Works that require a technical project still need a license. The rest of this article covers the first route: the clinic that offers aesthetic medicine.
Two different profiles and the same procedure ahead
Two profiles open an aesthetic clinic. The first is the experienced aesthetic physician who has worked with several clinics and decides to start a clinic of their own. The second is the entrepreneur with a calling for aesthetics, health, beauty and wellness, who comes from outside the healthcare sector. Both face the same procedure: the authorization of your region’s health authority.
That procedure sets the opening date. The health authority regulates the practice of aesthetic medicine, and the authorization depends on three specific credentials: who directs the healthcare activity, which staff provide it and which equipment is used. All three are documented before the inspection visit, not on the day the center wants to open.
The criterion behind those three credentials is a healthcare one. Aesthetic medicine is, above all, medicine, and the center must guarantee patient safety: professional ethics take precedence over the business and its results.
A registered medical director in charge of the healthcare activity
Whether or not the promoter is a physician, the operational activity of your aesthetic clinic must be directed by a doctor, with a Spanish degree or a recognized foreign one. That name appears on the health authorization (autorización sanitaria), so the application file moves forward once the medical director is appointed and documents the professional track record that safe practice requires.
Three documents accompany that appointment: a master’s degree in aesthetic medicine, one of the several recognized in Spain; registration with the medical association (Colegio de Médicos) of the province where the doctor practices; and third-party liability insurance, in force for both the doctor and the clinic, without exception.
The application file also includes a floor plan of the premises and an activity report (memoria de actividad), signed by an engineer or an architect. Both documents describe the center the inspection will visit, so they define the premises before the works begin.
Which staff and which equipment are reported to the health authority
All of the clinic’s healthcare staff are reported to the health authority with each professional’s qualifications, and the medical equipment with its technical specifications. That report sets the center’s authorized activity: the team and the equipment it can work with from day one.
The physician, the nurse and the clinical assistant count as healthcare staff. Beauticians, makeup artists and manicurists belong to another category, because their work falls outside healthcare parameters. The distinction matters when preparing the application file: it determines whose qualifications are submitted and who is assigned each treatment.
The inspection visit and the decision timelines
Once the documentation is submitted, the health authority schedules an on-site visit. The inspection checks, detail by detail, that the center as built matches the project submitted, and verifies accessibility for patients with disabilities: equality, comfort and freedom of movement in every area of the premises.
Two routes come out of that visit, and each has its own timeline. With a compliant application file, the clinic receives a favorable decision within 1 to 3 months. With documentation outstanding, it receives a list of required corrections (pliego de subsanaciones) that is resolved within 15 days to 1 month and adds a second visit to the schedule. Preparing the three credentials and the technical report before the inspection is what keeps the opening on the first route.
From project to first appointment: your opening, directed by a single team
The requirements in this article move forward at the same time as the business plan, the premises, the team and the equipment, and each decision shapes the next.
In our Opening service line, our team of consultants directs the entire opening, up to the first patient appointment. We handle the license and the health authorization, with the application file ready to submit in under 60 days.
We have worked only with clinics and beauty centers since 1999, with 1,017 clinics advised across Spain.