There are various reasons for complaints filed against public health-care facilities: delays, sloppy management, insufficient verbal communication and medical malpractice are some of the most common ones. Patients can submit their suggestion or complaint in writing. Generally, complaints are formalized through the customer service office of the hospital, the complaints office or the government health department.

Services and appointments
As for scheduling of appointments, health-care users can usually request appointments (up to a week in advance) from 8.00 a.m. to 8:30 pm. But staff warn that the time of the appointment is always just an estimate because it depends on how many patients the doctor has on his or her list, the time each patient needs with the physician and the arrival of patients who arrive without appointments and have urgent problems. In this case, urgent attention should be requested only when the patient cannot be treated with a scheduled appointment. Health-care staff ask patients to be considerate and civic-minded, saying "having to deal with unjustified claims for urgent care harms the rest of the health-care users and interferes with the work of the medical staff."

People who go to see general practictions at public hospitals can request the following services: treatment of acute diseases (infections, for example) or chronic ones (diabetes, hypertension); preventive activities; urgent care and house calls; health care education; and handling of absences from work because of illness. On the other hand, administrative staff takes care of health care cards, scheduling of appointments, any kind of bureaucratic issue and other services such as prescriptions and cards for chronic-disease medication.

Personal data
Article 18 of the Spanish constitution allows people to request protection of their personal data (name, address, marital status and National Identification Number) at public hospitals. Also, the information taken in at the hospitals must be accurate, complete and pertinent.

In other words, no data should be requested that goes beyond the purpose of medical care. Citizens can also see, publicly and for free, the personal data on them that is held in Information Protection Agency, either at the national or regional level, as well as be told how the data are going to be used, to what end and who is responsible for maintaining that file.

As for data protection, people have the right to know to whom their personal data have been given and how this data is going to be used. Less well known is citizens' right to correct, cancel or oppose the use of such data when thje procedure does not meet terms of law or when the personal information is inaccurate or incomplete. To enforce these rights, people can go to those in charge of the files and if these managers do not reply, turn to the Information Protection Agency.