I was surprised yesterday to be told by a friend who travels to the Torrevieja area from Andalucia frequently that when her husband fell ill in Torrevieja and needed treatment they refused his Andalucian medical card. Luckily they have a property there and had kept their Valencian medical cards even though out of date - this they accepted.

We have Andalucian medical cards and thought that as long as we were in Spain they would be honoured. Are we mistaken?

The EHIC issued by the UK for residents of Spain can be used in the UK but not in Spain. The same applies to a card issued in Spain.

You might get away with it but I wouldn't bank on it.

Most areas (or just some?) are issuing new health cards WHICH ARE NATIONAL. Certainly Valencia have been doing this for over a year. My card is now red.

That sounds right. My card is red and was issued by the Social Security rather than the Junta de Andalucia one which is green.

Our cards are green issued by the Junta. There is no expiry date on them. I know friends who have lived over here longer than us were originally given a red card which, although they have moved home within Andalucia several times they have not had changed, only reregistered their new address. Does this mean we will have problems?

Had the same problem again. This time different friends locally went to Barcelona and their green Andalucia cards were refused. Do we need to get new cards?