Technical application file on a desk, with an installations plan spread out

Health authorization and activity license for your clinic in Spain.

We prepare the application file for your dental, aesthetic medicine or plastic surgery clinic, or your beauty center, and take it through the city council (ayuntamiento) and the regional health authority until a decision is issued. We prepare your clinic’s application file and see it through to a decision.

Request a meeting See what Licensing includes
  • Full confidentiality
  • 1,017 clinics advised
  • Clinics only, since 1999

Who it is for New clinics, and established ones that expand, add treatments, change ownership or renew their authorization. New and established clinics that expand, change ownership or renew.

What you leave the meeting with Which licenses and authorizations your project requires in your region (comunidad autónoma).

How it fits with other services Within an opening, as part of the project; with Growth, one application file per new site; with Marketing, the prior authorization for healthcare advertising where it is required. Within an opening, with Growth or with Marketing.

Six procedures behind your clinic’s license and health authorization

A dental clinic declares its X-ray installation; an aesthetic medicine clinic, its medical director, a member of the medical association; a cosmetic surgery clinic, its operating room. Each region also applies its own rules. Each sector has its own requirements, and each region its own rules.

  • Your region’s regulation

    Each region sets its own rules for health authorization.

    With Quality Clinic

    We determine what your region requires for the activity your center will carry out.

  • Activity license or declaration of compliance

    The city council reviews the premises and the construction work, through an activity license (licencia de actividad) or a declaration of compliance (declaración responsable).

    With Quality Clinic

    We determine which municipal route applies to your premises, then prepare and file the application.

  • Installation and operating health authorization

    The regional health authority authorizes the center’s installation (autorización de instalación) and its operation (autorización sanitaria de funcionamiento) before the first patient appointment. The health authority authorizes the center before the first appointment.

    With Quality Clinic

    We prepare the technical and clinical application file and see it through with your region’s health department (consejería de Sanidad). We prepare the file and see it through with the health authority.

  • The technical project

    The report and drawings of the technical project (proyecto técnico) back both the license and the authorization.

    With Quality Clinic

    We keep the engineer or architect who signs the project on your opening schedule.

  • Registry of healthcare centers (REGCESS)

    The authorization is recorded in your region’s registry and in the REGCESS of the Spanish Ministry of Health. The center is recorded in the healthcare registry.

    With Quality Clinic

    We register your center and its range of healthcare services (oferta asistencial) in every registry that applies, and keep the records up to date. We register your center and keep its records up to date.

  • Change of ownership, modification and renewal

    Changing ownership (cambio de titularidad), expanding or adding treatments requires a modification authorization.

    With Quality Clinic

    We handle every modification, the change of ownership and the renewal, and update the registries. We handle each change and the center’s renewal.

Your application file, ready to submit in under 60 days.

Complete on first submission: that is what avoids requests for correction (requerimientos de subsanación).

Request a meeting, at no cost

One team for all your application files

Our team of consultants coordinates the activity license, health authorization, technical project and registration on a single schedule. License, authorization, project and registration, on one schedule.

Talk to the team

Your team of consultantsFrom analysis to decision

  • Regulation
  • Activity
  • Authorization
  • Project
  • Registries
  • Changes
★★★★★

«Pedí hablar con varios clientes suyos y las referencias fueron extraordinarias. […] A nivel de pyme, he hablado con muchos colegas, y no hay consultores más serios y cualificados en el sector.»

Translated from Spanish. “They don’t sell you snake oil or smoke and mirrors, and centers don’t need tribes or coaches. […] We know a lot about aesthetics and little about business. […] Quality simply works.”

Abel CarrascoSmall business owner in the sector
  • 1,017clinics advised
  • 1,050+projects managed
  • 1999clinics only, ever since
  • 48 hthe longest you wait for our call

How we handle licenses and authorizations, in four phases

Quality Clinic handles the activity license and health authorization for clinics anywhere in Spain, with the application file ready to submit in under 60 days. License and health authorization, with the file ready in under 60 days.

Start with the initial meeting We call you within 48 hours.

  1. Initial meeting

    We define what activity your center will carry out, and where. At no cost and with no commitment. Your center’s activity. At no cost and with no commitment.

    The initial meeting is at no cost: we call you within 48 hours, and you come away knowing what investment and what timeline your project requires.

    48 h
    the longest you wait for our call after your request
    1,017
    clinics advised by Quality Clinic since 1999

  2. Diagnosis

    We determine which licenses and authorizations that activity requires in your region, and what conditions the premises must meet. Which licenses your activity requires in your region.

    Real case: at a dental clinic with 4 operatories, an audit found why the application file had been stalled for more than 3 months.

    3 months
    more than 3 months with the file stalled
    9 days
    to resubmit it correctly

  3. Action plan

    A schedule of procedures that runs in parallel with the construction work, with the documents and the signing architect or engineer for each part. Procedures in parallel with construction, on a fixed schedule.

    The application file is prepared while construction progresses, and Quality Clinic coordinates the signing architect or engineer.

    60 days
    under 60 days to have the application file ready to submit
    1,050
    more than 1,050 projects managed

  4. Implementation

    We submit the application files, coordinate the signing architect or engineer and respond to requests for correction until a decision is issued. We submit the files and respond to requests for correction.

    Real case: that dental clinic obtained its health authorization with no further requests.

    5 weeks
    to the authorization, with no further requests
    1
    single request, a minor one about documents, in another opening with 3 treatment rooms

Frequently asked questions about licenses and health authorization

What is the difference between the activity license and the health license?
The city council grants the activity license, and your region’s health department grants the health license, whose official name is health authorization (autorización sanitaria de funcionamiento): the clinic needs both. The city council reviews the premises and the construction work through the activity license or through a declaration of compliance, which is the general route in cities such as Madrid under its Ordenanza 6/2022 (in Spanish). The health department authorizes the healthcare center, its installation, its operation and every later modification, as set out in article 29 of Ley 14/1986, General de Sanidad (in Spanish).
What permits does a dental clinic, an aesthetic medicine clinic or a beauty center need?
A dental or aesthetic medicine clinic needs the municipal activity license and the health authorization of its region, and each sector adds its own requirements, which Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) organizes by care unit. In a dental clinic (U.44), a dentist or a stomatologist is the person responsible, and X-ray equipment is declared before it is put into service, under article 12 of Real Decreto 1085/2009 (in Spanish). In aesthetic medicine (U.48), a physician is responsible for the treatments. A beauty center with no healthcare activity operates, in most cases, with the municipal license alone.
Does a beauty center need a health authorization?
In most cases, a beauty center operates with the municipal activity license, without a health authorization. When it adds non-surgical medical treatments, the ones that Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) places in the aesthetic medicine unit (U.48) under a physician’s responsibility, it needs a health authorization like any clinic. In the initial meeting we determine which regime applies to your center’s range of treatments, and on the blog we explain what opening a beauty clinic requires.
Can an esthetician administer Botox or hyaluronic acid?
Botox and injected hyaluronic acid are administered by a physician: they are non-surgical treatments for aesthetic purposes, and Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) defines aesthetic medicine (U.48) as the unit in which “a physician is responsible” for performing them. Botulinum toxin is also a prescription-only medicine according to the medicines information center of the AEMPS, the Spanish medicines agency (in Spanish), and article 79 of Real Decreto Legislativo 1/2015, de garantías de los medicamentos (in Spanish) reserves that prescription for physicians, dentists and podiatrists. To offer these treatments, a beauty center needs a health authorization and a responsible physician.
I have a beauty center and want to add aesthetic medicine. What do I need?
To add aesthetic medicine to your beauty center you need a health authorization for that activity, a responsible physician and a dedicated space for the unit. Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) classifies this case as a healthcare service integrated into a non-healthcare organization (C.3), with the aesthetic medicine unit (U.48). The Community of Madrid publishes its checklist of requirements (in Spanish): healthcare staff in charge of the unit, a technical project if construction work is involved, and a waiting area for exclusive healthcare use. How to choose the physician and agree terms with them is explained in our article on a new line of business in your beauty center.
What authorizations does a plastic surgery clinic with an operating room need?
A plastic surgery clinic with an operating room first needs the installation health authorization, because the operating room is fixed equipment that requires construction work, and then the operating authorization, as explained by the Community of Madrid (in Spanish), which requires a technical project for the first. Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) places the activity in cosmetic surgery (U.47), where the person responsible is a physician specialized in Plastic, Aesthetic and Reconstructive Surgery or another surgical specialty, within its official training program. It is the slowest permit of the four sectors we work in, and we plan for it from the start of the project.
Do my premises need an activity license, or is a declaration of compliance enough?
Your city council’s ordinance decides, depending on the activity and the construction work. In Madrid, Ordenanza 6/2022 (in Spanish) reserves the license for the actions listed in its annex I, such as construction work that requires a technical project, and everything else goes through a declaration of compliance, which takes effect from its registration with complete documentation. In the diagnosis we determine which route applies to your premises.
Can I start operating while the health authorization is being processed?
The clinic starts seeing patients once it has been granted the health authorization to operate, which article 3 of Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) requires before activity begins. The installation authorization, requested when construction work with fixed equipment is involved, comes before the operating authorization, which is the one that allows the clinic to see patients, as the FAQs of the Community of Madrid (in Spanish) and the Generalitat Valenciana (in Spanish) state. The Valencian FAQs specify that the authorization must be granted before starting, even when the application has already been submitted. That is why we schedule the first appointment after the decision, with construction and the application file running in parallel from day one.
How long does a clinic’s health authorization take?
Each region sets the maximum time to decide on the health authorization: in the Community of Madrid, two months for installation and three for operation, under articles 9 and 12 of Decreto 51/2006 (in Spanish); in the Valencian Community, six months, according to the official procedure page (in Spanish). In both, if no decision is issued within that time, the application is deemed rejected (silencio administrativo desestimatorio). Across our application files of recent years, the decision has taken 8 weeks on average in every region, Madrid and the Valencian Community included. A complete application file avoids requests for correction, which are what lengthen the wait, and we prepare yours, ready to submit, in under 60 days.
Can I handle the health authorization myself, or is it better to delegate it?
You can handle the health authorization yourself: it is submitted by the center’s holder or their representative, electronically if the holder is a company or a registered professional, as required by article 14.2 of Ley 39/2015 (in Spanish) and noted by the Community of Madrid (in Spanish). What lengthens the process is the requests for correction: in the Valencian Community, a deficiency must be corrected within 10 working days or the application is deemed withdrawn, according to the procedure page (in Spanish). Entrusting it to Quality Clinic gives you a complete application file, ready to submit in under 60 days, prepared by a team that has worked only with clinics since 1999.
Can it be processed in any region of Spain?
Quality Clinic processes licenses and health authorizations anywhere in Spain, applying each region’s own regulation on the common basis of Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish): in the Community of Madrid, Decreto 51/2006 (in Spanish); in the Valencian Community, Decreto 157/2014 (in Spanish). The answers change from one region to another: Madrid renews the operating authorization every eight years and the Valencian Community grants it indefinitely, according to their official FAQs (Madrid and Valencian Community, both in Spanish). We apply that regulation region by region, working exclusively with clinics since 1999.
Do I have to register the clinic in the REGCESS?
Your region enters the center in the registry of healthcare centers on its own initiative when it grants the operating authorization, as the FAQs of the Community of Madrid (in Spanish) and the Valencian Community (in Spanish) indicate. The regions then pass that data on to the Ministry of Health’s General Registry of Healthcare Centers, Services and Establishments (REGCESS, in Spanish), which article 5 of Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) defines as public and informational. The holder is responsible for keeping the data up to date: in the Valencian Community, with a declaration of compliance every five years.
If I take over an existing clinic, what happens to the health authorization?
With the takeover (traspaso), the new holder applies for a modification of the health authorization for change of ownership, which article 3 of Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish) provides for changes in structure, ownership or range of healthcare services. In the Community of Madrid, if the center’s authorization is in force, that modification is enough; if it has expired, the former holder applies for closure and the new holder for a new authorization, according to its official FAQs (in Spanish). Before signing, check that the authorization is in force and that it covers the treatments you plan to offer. We process the change of ownership and the center’s modifications.
If I move to new premises, does the health authorization move with me?
The health authorization is granted for a specific address, so the new premises need their own operating authorization, and the old premises, a closure authorization. The Community of Madrid sums it up in its FAQs (in Spanish): “There is no such thing as transferring a health authorization.” The Valencian Community also requires the closure authorization when the center relocates, according to its FAQs (in Spanish). If the new premises need construction work with fixed equipment, the installation authorization is added. We check that the premises are suitable for healthcare use before you sign.
If the clinic’s physician or dentist changes, do I have to report it?
The clinic’s holder notifies the health department of every new hire and every departure among its healthcare staff, with the new professional’s degree, certificate of registration with their professional association and professional liability insurance, according to the Community of Madrid’s FAQs (in Spanish). If the new professional brings a specialty that is not listed in the authorization, a modification for change in the range of healthcare services is also required. Since July 1, 2026, article 7 of Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish), added by Real Decreto 239/2026 (in Spanish), requires the center to guarantee, for as long as it operates, that patients are seen by professionals with the appropriate qualifications, and to keep an up-to-date file on each of them.
How often is the health authorization renewed?
Each region sets how often renewal is due, as provided in article 3 of Real Decreto 1277/2003 (in Spanish). In the Community of Madrid, the operating authorization is renewed every eight years, and renewal is requested at least three months before it expires, under Decreto 205/2023 (in Spanish). In the Valencian Community it is granted indefinitely, and every five years the holder confirms, with a declaration of compliance, that the center still meets its conditions, according to its official FAQs (in Spanish). We process the renewal, as well as the initial authorization, its modifications and the change of ownership.

Request your diagnostic meeting, at no cost

You come away knowing which application files your clinic must submit to the city council and the regional health authority. We call you within 48 hours, in full confidentiality. You come away knowing which files your clinic needs. We call you within 48 hours.

+34 629 148 096Call or WhatsApp
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