Emergency room, now
- Chest pain, or pain into the arm or jaw
- Face drooping, arm weakness, slurred speech
- Trouble breathing, or a severe allergic reaction
- Heavy bleeding, or a head injury with confusion
- A high fever in a small child, or a seizure
Urgent care
Something has gone wrong and you are in Mexico
If this is an emergency, stop reading and go to a hospital emergency room. Chest pain, stroke signs, trouble breathing, heavy bleeding, a head injury, a severe allergic reaction. Mexico's emergency number is 911, it works from any phone, and it is answered in English in the border and tourist cities. Nothing on this page is worth the two minutes it would cost you.
The rest of this page is for the situation that is far more common and that nobody writes about: you are here, you are not in danger, something is wrong anyway, and you have no idea what it costs, who to see, or whether it can wait until you are home.
Three situations, three different answers
Your surgeon, tonight
- Fever after an operation
- A wound that is opening, leaking or spreading redness
- Pain that is getting worse instead of better
- Sudden swelling in one leg, or breathlessness after surgery
- Anything you were told to watch for at discharge
A consultation this week
- An infection that is not spreading
- A medication you have run out of
- An injury that is painful but stable
- A result or a symptom you want looked at before you fly
- A second opinion on what an ER told you
Who answers after hours
Nothing is listed here yet
A hospital appears here once it has been confirmed that its emergency room genuinely runs around the clock, and a doctor appears once their after-hours number has been dialled and answered, with the date recorded. Neither is published from a website, because a website is where every hospital already says it.
While that list is empty, the parts of this page that help are above it: which of the three situations you are actually in, and what a private hospital will ask you for at the door. If it is an emergency, the answer is not on this list anyway. It is 911, or the nearest emergency room.
What the door will cost you
The part that catches people from the US and Canada out is not the price. It is when they are asked for it.
Bring a card, not just an insurance card
Private hospitals here will stabilise an emergency and will also ask for a deposit or a card early, frequently at admission. Your insurer is very unlikely to be billed directly. Plan on paying and claiming afterwards, and make sure the card you carry has the headroom for a deposit rather than a consultation.
Ask for the itemised bill before you leave
In Spanish it is the factura, and it is what any claim you make later rests on. Get it itemised, get it in your own name, and keep the discharge summary and any imaging with it. Reconstructing this from another country weeks later is close to impossible.
What time is it there
For the border cities, where deciding whether to cross tonight is a real question. These clocks do not all move together: Sonora and the interior never change, while Baja California, Ciudad Juárez and Matamoros follow their US neighbours.
Tijuana
—
Mexicali
—
Nogales
—
Ciudad Juárez
—
Reynosa
—
Matamoros
—
CBP border wait times How the crossings work Check a licence in two minutes
Questions patients actually ask
Should I call a doctor from this page or go to a hospital?
If it looks like an emergency, go to a hospital and do not spend the next ten minutes on the phone. Chest pain, stroke signs, trouble breathing, heavy bleeding, a head injury, a severe allergic reaction, a high fever in a small child: those go to an emergency room, by ambulance if you cannot get there safely yourself. Mexico's national emergency number is 911 and it is answered in English in the tourist cities and along the border. This page is for everything after that, and for the large middle ground that is not an emergency and is not nothing.
Will a private hospital treat me before I pay?
A private hospital will stabilise an emergency, and it will also ask for a card or a deposit early, often at admission and usually before anything non-urgent. This surprises people from the US and Canada more than the prices do. Bring a card with real headroom on it, not just an insurance card, and expect to settle directly and claim afterwards rather than have the hospital bill your insurer. Public hospitals are a different system with different rules, and in an emergency they will treat you regardless.
Does my US or Canadian insurance cover this?
Usually not in the way you would like. Most US domestic plans and most provincial Canadian plans pay little or nothing outside the country, and the ones that do generally reimburse you afterwards against an itemised bill rather than paying the hospital directly. Travel medical insurance is the product that actually covers this, and it is worth knowing which you have before you need it. Whatever you hold, ask for the itemised bill and keep everything: without it, there is nothing to claim against.
I came here for surgery and something is wrong with the recovery. Who do I call?
Your surgeon, first and immediately, whatever the hour and however far away you are now. A post-operative complication is their case and it is normal for a surgeon who operates on international patients to take those calls directly. If you cannot reach them and it is getting worse, go to an emergency room and bring your operative report. This is the single most common reason a patient from the US or Canada needs care here at short notice, and it is why the surgeon's own after-hours number matters more than any directory.
Why is nobody listed here yet?
Because nothing is published from a website. A hospital appears on this list once it has been confirmed that its emergency room genuinely runs around the clock, and a specialist appears once their after-hours number has been dialled and answered, with the date recorded. Both are being worked through. An empty list is what the check honestly says today, and it beats a list that sends somebody to a door that is locked.
If you are a doctor or a hospital that answers after hours
There is a place for you on this page, and it costs nothing. The conditions, in Spanish, are on la página de urgencias.