In an emergency, call 112. It is the same number across the EU and reaches ambulance, police and fire.
If you have landed here because something has gone wrong, we are sorry. The good news is that care in Malta is genuinely good and rarely far away. It is just arranged a little differently to what you might be used to, and knowing which door to knock on saves time and worry at the moment you have least of both.
So that is all this page does: where to go, and which place suits what. What is actually wrong is a question for the people you will meet there, and they are the right ones to answer it. If you are unsure how urgent something is, call 112 and let them make that call with you.
In an emergency
The emergency number in Malta is 112, the same as everywhere in the EU, and it reaches ambulance, police and fire.
Mater Dei Hospital
materdeihospital.gov.mtThe state hospital and the main emergency department. It is busy most of the time, and unless what is wrong is serious the wait can be long. That is worth knowing before you set off, not after three hours in a chair.
St James Hospital, emergency
stjameshospital.comPrivate emergency rooms. The reason to choose this over Mater Dei is speed rather than quality of care, and you or your insurer pay for it. Check your policy covers private treatment before you need to ask.
Minor injuries and feeling ill
For something small, a health centre is the right door and the hospital is the wrong one: you will be seen sooner and you are not joining an emergency queue. The part worth knowing before you need it is that only three are open around the clock, one for each part of the island. Mosta covers the centre and north, Floriana covers Valletta and the harbour towns, and Paola covers the south. Every other centre closes in the evening and points you at whichever of those three is its hub, and most are shut on Sundays and public holidays entirely.
Health centres
primaryhealthcare.gov.mtPublic primary care, spread across both islands. Not all of them are open around the clock and only certain hubs are, so check which one near you is open before travelling to it.
Health centre hours, addresses and phone
primaryhealthcare.gov.mtWhere each centre actually is, when it opens, and which hub takes over when it shuts. If you would rather just ask someone, the primary care call centre is 21231231.
St James Hospital
stjameshospital.comPrivate clinics and departments for non-emergency needs. Not every department runs at every location or at every hour, so call ahead rather than turning up.
Pharmacies
The thing to know: pharmacies here are not all open on Sundays and public holidays. They work a rotation, so on those days the question is not where the nearest one is, it is which one is on duty.
Everything listed here is free, honest advice. We are not paid by anyone on this page, we have no affiliate arrangements, and nothing is here because someone asked to be. If that ever changes, it will say so on the entry itself.
Getting to any of these is its own question, and buses thin out at night. The transport page has the taxi and ride-hailing apps people here actually use.