Alicante set for nine round the clock urgent care centres by 2028

Benidorm gets the first CAU24H before the end of this year, easing pressure on A&E and GP surgeries

Anyone who's ever faced a long wait at A&E for something that didn't quite need a full hospital visit will likely welcome this one. The Generalitat Valenciana is rolling out nine 24 hour Urgent Care Centres, known as CAU24H, across Alicante province by 2028, designed to handle lower and medium complexity emergencies without clogging up hospital emergency departments or overwhelming primary care.

The first centre opens before the end of 2026 in Rincón de Loix, Benidorm. From there, the rollout picks up pace quickly. Four more centres are due to open during the first half of 2027, in Cabo Huertas on San Juan beach, Sant Vicent del Raspeig, Orihuela and Torrevieja. A further three follow in the second half of that year, located in Campoamor, Elda and Elx Altabix. The final two, in Alcoy and Babel, are scheduled to complete the provincial network in 2028.

It's a sizeable investment too. Staffing costs alone are expected to top €2 million in 2026, rising to almost €10 million annually from 2027 onwards once the full network is up and running.

Each centre will be built around three core ideas, longer opening hours, stronger problem solving capacity on site, and proper integration with the wider urgent care system. Patients will be triaged on arrival, with separate zones for more critical cases, and the centres will be fitted with digital radiology using artificial intelligence alongside basic blood and urine testing facilities. In practice, that means many cases can be resolved on the spot, without needing a referral to hospital just for an x-ray or routine test.

There's also provision for non-emergency medical transport, making it easier to move patients on to another facility if their care needs to continue elsewhere. Crucially, every centre will be linked into the Ministry of Health's single medical record system, so your care history follows you wherever you're treated.

Alicante's nine centres represent a substantial chunk of the twenty CAU24H sites planned across the wider region, with the Health Department aiming to have the entire network complete by 2028.

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