Mid-April, warm days and the sun are already appearing and anticipating that summer is getting closer and closer. It's time to organize vacation trips. Choose destination, plan the route, buy flights, book hotels… But there is also paperwork and processes that are not as gratifying as they are necessary. Some destinations require prior vaccination to enter the country, and others, it is advisable to avoid future setbacks. However, what should be a mere formality, has become a real headache due to the system collapse.
Authorities recommend requesting an appointment between four and eight weeks before traveling, that is, between one and two months, but in practice, getting it with that much notice is practically impossible in some autonomous communities, especially in the Community of Madrid.
The international vaccination centers, responsible for administering the recommended doses —such as yellow fever, hepatitis or typhoid fever— and issuing the corresponding certificate, register a high demand that overwhelms their operational capacity. The result is a bottleneck that forces many travelers to reorganize their plans or seek alternatives outside the usual circuit.
On the Community of Madrid website, for example, the bulk of appointments is managed through the regional website, which allows choosing between several options: La Paz / Carlos III Hospital, 12 de Octubre Hospital, International Vaccination Center of the Community of Madrid, University Hospital of Móstoles and Príncipe de Asturias University Hospital. A wide useless catalog, since, as of today, none of them offers available appointments before the month of October, when summer is already in the rearview mirror.
Given this panorama, the alternative routes are few if one wants to maintain the destination. Firstly, the traveler is condemned to having to resort to private Healthcare, with the nuance that not all centers are authorized to supply this type of vaccines and some, even, do not have doses for yellow fever, one of the most common.
Another possibility is to try to get an appointment at a center in a region adjacent to the Community of Madrid. Guadalajara, Toledo… However, as Demócrata has been able to verify, the hospitals in these regions warn that they only have the capacity to absorb the demand from travelers belonging to their respective health areas. It is so common for the capital not to have available appointments that it is already customary for citizens to go and end up collapsing them as well.
External Health, the most viable (and not always).
In Spain, the international vaccination network fundamentally depends on the Ministry of Health through Foreign Health. These centers not only administer vaccines, but also offer personalized advice based on the destination, the type of trip, and the traveler's profile.
The procedure for requesting an appointment goes, in most cases, through specific online platforms for each community or the Foreign Health system itself. In theory, the process is simple: choose a center, select a date, and complete personal data. In practice, calendars appear without availability for weeks, which forces users to repeatedly check for cancellations or new agenda openings.
However, in External Health there is indeed the possibility of getting earlier appointments. Whoever accessed the website today to request an appointment could get it for the first half of August. It would still not be useful for many travelers who have their trips scheduled earlier, but it is not October. There is also the possibility of looking for a slot in an External Health center from another geographical point: Seville, Alicante, Asturias, Cartagena...
Some communities have reinforced their devices at specific moments, but the problem persists year after year during periods of greater international mobility. Added to this is that certain vaccines require several doses or a minimum time margin to be effective, which further reduces the room for maneuver for travelers.
Faced with this situation, the authorities themselves insist on the importance of planning with the maximum possible advance notice, even before closing the trip. They also remind that not all destinations require the same vaccines nor with the same urgency, which is why they recommend informing oneself previously through official channels.
Nevertheless, the mismatch between recommendation and availability once again brings to the table the need to review the capacity of the international vaccination system, in a context of increasing global mobility and greater health awareness among travelers.