How to get a permanent SIP card

We went to see Paco on the health desk in the lobby of the Ayuntamiento in Pilar de La Horadada last year.  He doesn’t speak English very well but he will recognise the form S1 and he will be able to communicate with you what happens next.  It took about a month from seeing Paco to obtaining permission and we then had to go to the health centre (in Pilar) to get the SIP card.

At the bottom of the first page of the S1 (unless it's changed) it says (correctly) that it has to be presented to a social security INSS office.

This is Spain, so depends on the person dealing with your mum, but tell her to take supporting documents as well as both copies of the S1 - passport, residencia/NIE and something proving the address on the residency certificate is correct, like escritura or utility bill.

INSS will allocate a SIP number, and she can then take the document provided to her medical centre of choice, who will issue the SIP card and allocate a doctor.

Some small doctors practices don't have a machine to produce the permanent plastic SIPs, but they'd tell her where to go to get one.

It's probably not essential to have an appointment for INSS, but it might cut down on the delay in being attended to. You can make an appointment here, and also use it to tell you the nearest office:

https://w6.seg-social.es/ProsaInternetAnonimo/OnlineAccess?ARQ.SPM.ACTION=LOGIN&ARQ.SPM.APPTYPE=SERVICE&ARQ.IDAPP=XV106001

Depending on where your mum lives, I'd guess at Calle Urbano Arregui, 8, Torrevieja or Calle San Agustín, 20, Orihuela.

And please give your mum my congratulations on getting residency.

Thanks both, I have to arrange an appointment at INSS for something else so I'll see if we can kill two birds with one stone.