Non-urgent medical transfers: what they are, what they are not and when a car with a driver is right for taking a patient to an appointment, check-up, discharge or rehabilitation
Medical transport is transport by ambulance, with the vehicles, equipment and staff regulated by Royal Decree 836/2012; it may be assisted, with medical care en route, or non-assisted, for patients who do not need care but cannot use ordinary means, and in the public system it is prescribed by a clinician. A non-urgent transfer by car with a driver is something else: ordinary passenger transport for a person who can travel seated, without care and without equipment, to an appointment, a check-up, a rehabilitation session or the journey home after discharge. The driver is not medical staff and must not do their job. When the patient needs a stretcher, oxygen, monitoring or help to move that a companion cannot give, the right service is an ambulance.
Written by Ridelta - Taxi y VTC · reviewed on 27 October 2026
What is medical transport and what does Royal Decree 836/2012 regulate?
In Spain, medical transport by road is an activity regulated separately from ordinary passenger transport. Royal Decree 836/2012 sets the technical characteristics of ambulances, their medical equipment and the staffing each class must carry, and distinguishes two broad groups: assisted ambulances, equipped to care for the patient during the journey with medical staff and life-support material, and non-assisted ambulances, intended to move patients who need no care en route but who, because of their condition, cannot use ordinary means of transport. Among the non-assisted ones there are vehicles for a single patient and collective vehicles, the ones that take several people to a day centre or a scheduled treatment.
A medical transport company needs, in addition to the transport authorisation the Land Transport Act requires for that specific class, the health authorisation of the regional government, and its staff must hold the qualification the rules demand, such as the emergency medical technician qualification for whoever drives and attends. In the public system, non-assisted medical transport is part of the common service portfolio of the National Health System: a clinician prescribes it when the patient cannot travel on their own for a medical reason, and each regional health service provides it with its own means or with contracted companies. None of that can be done by a car with a driver, even if the vehicle is adapted.
What is a non-urgent transfer by car with a driver and which cases is it for?
A car with a driver taking a person to a medical appointment is passenger transport, nothing more: a pre-booked service, at a fixed price, provided under a VTC authorisation or a taxi licence, with no stretcher, no oxygen, no medical material and no clinically trained staff. It is for anyone who can travel seated for the journey, get in and out of the vehicle on their own or with the occasional help anyone would give, and spend the trip without needing care. What it offers over public transport or relying on a relative is punctuality for an appointment with a fixed time, pickup at the door, an arranged return and, when the service repeats, a driver who knows the person and the way.
The typical cases are the ones a clinic or an insurer handles every day: outpatient appointments and diagnostic tests, follow-up visits after a procedure, the journey home after discharge once the medical team has confirmed the patient can travel seated, rehabilitation or physiotherapy sessions, accompanying older people to their appointments when the family cannot, and transfers from a care home to the health centre or the hospital for a scheduled visit. Dialysis is on this list only under two conditions: that the health service does not already cover that transfer with prescribed medical transport, and that the team treating the patient confirms they can travel seated before and after the session. When in doubt, the medical staff decide, not the transport company.
What must a driver never do on a patient transfer?
The driver is not medical staff and nothing in their authorisation or training allows them to act as such. They must not administer medication, not even remind someone of a dose at the family's request; they must not handle oxygen, catheters, pumps or any medical device; they must not perform transfers from a wheelchair to the seat that require technique or strength, because a fall at that moment is a workplace accident and harm to the patient; they must not assess the person's condition or decide whether they are fit to travel; and they must not be left alone with a patient who needs monitoring, because driving and monitoring are incompatible. If on arrival at the pickup the person is not in a condition to travel seated, the right thing is to alert whoever contracted the service and, if needed, the emergency services, not to improvise.
Nor must they know what they do not need. The diagnosis, the treatment and the medical record are health data, a specially protected category under the General Data Protection Regulation, and the driver does not need them to do their job: the name, the address, the time, the centre and the destination door, and practical mobility notes, such as that the person uses a walking frame, needs the front seat or travels with a companion, are enough. When a clinic, an insurer or a care home contracts the service, it is the controller of those data and the transport company is its processor, with the contract the regulation requires for that relationship; that is why the information sent to the driver must be the minimum and the conversation in the car discreet. A driver who asks about the illness is not being kind: they are asking for what is not theirs to know.
What should a clinic, an insurer or a care home ask for when contracting, and how is the business account organised?
The first thing to ask for is what defines the service: committed punctuality at pickup, because a missed hospital appointment is rescheduled weeks later; an agreed wait for the return, because an appointment or a session runs long and the patient cannot be left at the door; an adapted vehicle when the person travels in their own wheelchair, with approved anchorages, as the piece on accessibility explains; child seats if minors travel; and identified drivers, with their documents in order and, in regular services, the same ones for the same patients. It should also ask how the day's surprises are communicated — an appointment brought forward, a patient who is not travelling — and who answers at the other end.
The second is the administrative side. A business account lets several people at the centre make bookings — admissions, social work, the care home coordinator — with a reference per patient or per department, lets the invoice be monthly and in the organisation's name, at the reduced VAT rate for passenger transport and itemised per service, and lets repeating transfers be managed on a calendar, as the piece on recurring transfers describes. The contract should record the protection of health data in the terms of the previous section, the insurance covering passengers, the protocol when the patient is not fit to travel and the rule that the driver provides no care. This platform's clinics and hospitals page explains how that account is opened; the specific terms are the ones it publishes.
When must the case be referred to an ambulance?
The rule is simple to state and the medical team applies it: if the person cannot travel seated for the journey, or needs any care, device or monitoring en route, the means is medical transport, assisted or non-assisted as the case requires. That covers anyone who needs a stretcher or cannot hold a seated position, anyone who depends on oxygen or a device during the trip, anyone coming out of sedation or anaesthesia where the centre requires supervision, anyone with an infection that requires isolation, anyone with cognitive impairment that prevents them travelling without a carer and who has none, and anyone who, because of their weight or mobility, needs a transfer a driver cannot perform safely. It also covers any urgent situation: a car with a driver is not an emergency resource and must not be requested as one.
For an organisation arranging many transfers, the useful thing is a written referral rule that staff apply before booking: who decides, with what questions, and what is done when the answer changes at the last minute. If the health service already covers the transfer with prescribed medical transport, there is no point duplicating it with a private car; if it does not and the patient can travel seated, the car with a driver is a legitimate and more flexible option; if there is doubt, the ambulance. Leaving that decision to the driver or the transport company is handing it to whoever has neither the information nor the competence to take it, and that is the one thing this piece asks to avoid.
Frequently asked questions
Is it legal to take a patient to an appointment in a car with a driver?
Yes, as long as the person can travel seated and without care: it is ordinary passenger transport under a VTC authorisation or a taxi licence. What that car cannot do is replace an ambulance or prescribed medical transport.
Can the driver help the patient into the car or carry their wheelchair?
They can give the occasional help anyone would give and load a folding wheelchair into the boot. They must not perform transfers that require technique or strength, nor act as a carer; if that is needed, the means is medical transport.
Does the driver need to know what illness the patient has?
No. The diagnosis is specially protected health data and the driver does not need it; the name, the addresses, the time and practical mobility notes are enough. The clinic is the controller of those data and the transport company its processor.
Is a car with a driver suitable for going to dialysis?
Only if the health service does not already cover that transfer with prescribed medical transport and the team treating the patient confirms they can travel seated before and after the session. When in doubt, the medical staff decide.
How does a clinic or a care home invoice its patients' transfers?
With a business account: a monthly invoice in the organisation's name, at the reduced VAT rate for passenger transport, itemised per service with a reference per patient or department. It is opened from the clinics and hospitals page.
Sources
- Real Decreto 836/2012, características técnicas, equipamiento sanitario y dotación de personal de los vehículos de transporte sanitario por carretera: ambulancias asistenciales y no asistenciales (consulted on 27 October 2026)
- Real Decreto 1030/2006, cartera de servicios comunes del Sistema Nacional de Salud: transporte sanitario no asistencial por prescripción facultativa (consulted on 27 October 2026)
- Ley 16/1987, de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres: transporte de viajeros, arrendamiento de vehículos con conductor y transporte sanitario como clase específica (consulted on 27 October 2026)
- Reglamento (UE) 2016/679, General de Protección de Datos: datos relativos a la salud (artículo 9) y contrato entre responsable y encargado del tratamiento (artículo 28) (consulted on 27 October 2026)
How we write, where the figures come from and how we correct an error: editorial policy.
This piece describes the general framework in Spain and is not medical or legal advice: whether a patient can travel seated is decided by their medical team, and what prescribed medical transport covers depends on each health service. The rules may change and the sources are dated; the terms of the service are those the platform publishes.