What does the strike mean for patients and holidaymakers?
Planned consultations, examinations and operations may be postponed or cancelled. The strike covers regular working hours from Monday to Friday within the Servicio Canario de la Salud (SCS), the public health service of the Canary Islands.
Anyone with an appointment at a health centre or hospital should contact the facility directly to check whether it will go ahead. The sources do not name a central information point for all the islands.
Emergency care and the legally established minimum services remain in place. According to the Gobierno de Canarias, these include urgent outpatient and home care, oncology, dialysis and operations that cannot be postponed.
What was the turnout on the first day of the strike?
The Consejería de Sanidad of the Gobierno de Canarias reported a participation rate of 9.19% for 16 October 2026. Of 3,854 staff actually affected, 354 went on strike.
The unions Sindicato Médico Canario and SEMCA put the figure at 58%, as reported by Canarias7. The sources use different reference bases, so the figures are not directly comparable.
Broken down by island, the government reported: Gran Canaria 262 of 1,423 affected (18.41%), Tenerife 80 of 1,781 (4.49%), Lanzarote 6 of 212 (2.83%), Fuerteventura 3 of 266 (1.13%), La Palma 2 of 152 (1.32%). La Gomera had 5% participation; nobody struck on El Hierro.
What are the doctors demanding?
The unions are demanding, among other things, payment for previously unpaid teaching work and a 30% increase in the fixed supplement. The performance supplement is to rise by 50%.
Further demands concern pay for waiting-list reduction programmes, frozen since 2014, as well as higher pay for on-call duties. The unions are also calling for a separate negotiating framework for doctors.
They rejected the latest offer from the Consejería de Sanidad as inadequate. They are calling for direct mediation by the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo Batlle.
What did the health administration offer?
The Servicio Canario de la Salud put forward a package of measures. It proposes reducing on-call duties from Monday to Friday, on an optional basis and without loss of pay.
For weekends and public holidays, Sanidad proposes replacing 24-hour shifts with two 12-hour shifts where feasible.
An increase is planned for weekend and public holiday duties. The unions consider the offer inadequate.
What impact has there been so far?
On 16 October, the government reported no significant incidents. 1,487 professionals were assigned to minimum services.
What happens next?
As of 18 October 2026, according to Libertad Digital, no agreement had been reached to end the strike. Both sides indicated they were in principle willing to continue talks.
Without a breakthrough, the strike is set to continue on Monday, 19 October 2026. No end date for the indefinite strike has been published.
The weekend negotiations are considered decisive. The unions have reiterated their willingness to engage in dialogue and called for the involvement of Fernando Clavijo Batlle.