What should you know about healthcare and emergencies in Portillo?
Police
133
Ambulance: 131.
Updated July 2026 · Sources cited: skiportillo.com, chileanski.com
Good to know
Good to Know
- Chile does not have one universal emergency number like 911 — save 131 (ambulance), 132 (fire), and 133 (police) separately in your phone before you need them.
- Portillo is a remote high-Andes ski resort on Route 60, right up against snowfall/avalanche closure risk and the Argentine border — actual response times for 131/132/133 will be slower than in a city, and the Andean mountain rescue line (136) is more relevant here than in most other Chilean destinations.
- Emergency call handlers operate in Spanish, so it's worth having a few key phrases ready or a translation app on hand.
- Public hospitals must treat emergencies regardless of insurance or residency status, but non-residents without local insurance should expect a bill afterward — travel insurance with medical evacuation coverage is strongly advised given Portillo's remote mountain location.
- Portillo itself is a remote high-altitude ski resort (about 2,880 m) with no town or hospital on-site — the resort's own clinic is walk-in only Monday–Saturday 9am–8pm, though it says emergency care is available 24/7 through the hotel front desk.
- For anything serious, the nearest real hospital is roughly 80 km away in the town of Los Andes; the resort's stated protocol for major trauma/medical emergencies is helicopter evacuation to Clínica Alemana in Santiago (about 164 km away), not a drive to a local ER.
- Snow chains are compulsory on the road connecting Portillo to Los Andes/Santiago during ski season, which can add significant time to any ground-based emergency transport in winter storms.
Primary Numbers
Ambulance / Medical Emergency (SAMU)
- Number
- 131
- Notes
- National medical emergency line, toll-free from any phone, 24 hours.
Fire Brigade (Bomberos)
- Number
- 132
- Notes
- Toll-free, 24 hours. Chile's fire service is largely volunteer-run.
Police (Carabineros)
- Number
- 133
- Notes
- Primary line for street crime, accidents, or feeling unsafe. Toll-free, 24 hours.
Investigative Police (PDI)
- Number
- 134
- Notes
- For investigative/detective matters rather than immediate street response.
Official Safety Apps
Carabineros De Chile (Official App)
- Features
- Lets users locate the nearest police stations and hospitals, dial 133 directly, check preventive-safety advice, and includes a reduced English-language version for foreign visitors.
- Platforms
- iOS and Android
- Publisher
- Carabineros de Chile (national police)
SENAPRED Alert App
- Features
- Sends official alerts for natural hazards (earthquakes, tsunamis, wildfires, severe weather) relevant to a user's registered location — useful for a mountain location like Portillo where avalanche/weather closures on Route 60 are common.
- Platforms
- iOS and Android; SMS alert registration also available via senapred.cl
- Publisher
- SENAPRED (Chile's national disaster prevention and response service)
Secondary And Specialized Numbers
Mountain Rescue (Cuerpo De Socorro Andino)
- Number
- 136
- Notes
- Highly relevant for Portillo given its high-Andes ski-resort location on Route 60 near the Argentine border.
Sea/Coastal Rescue (Armada)
- Number
- 137
- Notes
- Not directly relevant to Portillo, which is inland/mountainous.
Air Search and Rescue (FACh SAR)
- Number
- 138
Forest Fires (CONAF)
- Number
- 130
Drug Hotline (Fono Drogas, Carabineros)
- Number
- 135
Police Information / Non-Emergency (Carabineros)
- Number
- 139
Child Abuse Prevention (Fono Niños)
- Number
- 147
Family Violence Line (Fono Familia)
- Number
- 149
Hospitals
Ski Portillo Resort Clinic (Hotel Portillo Medical Clinic)
- Type
- On-site resort clinic, not a full hospital
- Hours
- Walk-in hours Monday to Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; emergency service available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week via the hotel front desk
- Location
- Lower level of Hotel Portillo, Ski Portillo resort, Portillo, Los Andes Province, Valparaíso Region, Chile
- Capabilities
- Staffed by an on-site medical team with specialists described by the resort as covering internal medicine, traumatology, nursing and radiology, intended for stabilizing skiing injuries and altitude-related illness
- Sourced From
- Official Ski Portillo website
- Serious Case Protocol
- For emergencies beyond the clinic's capability, the resort states a helicopter is used to transport patients to Clínica Alemana hospital in Santiago
- Trauma Level Designation
- None — this is a small resort clinic, not a designated trauma center
Hospital San Juan De Dios De Los Andes
- Type
- Public hospital with emergency department (Servicio de Urgencia)
- Hours
- Emergency department (Urgencia) operates on a 24-hour basis, per Chile's public-hospital emergency-service norms
- Address
- Avenida Argentina N° 315, Los Andes, Región de Valparaíso, Chile
- Capabilities
- Public referral hospital for the Aconcagua health service area, with an emergency unit and general/trauma-related specialties
- Sourced From
- Chile's Superintendencia de Salud registry and Centros de Salud de Chile community health portal
- Distance From Portillo
- Approximately 80 km down the mountain via the international highway (Ruta 60) — realistically over an hour's drive in good conditions, longer in winter when snow chains are required; this is the nearest full hospital to the Portillo resort, which itself has no hospital in-town
- Trauma Level Designation
- Classified by Chile's health regulator (Superintendencia de Salud) as an 'Alta Complejidad' (high-complexity) establishment; Chile does not use the same Level I–IV trauma-center scale as the US, so this is the closest equivalent official designation available
Country
Chile
How To Call
All three main numbers (131, 132, 133) are free to call from any landline or mobile phone anywhere in Chile, without needing an area code.
Universal Emergency Number
- Detail
- Chile does not route emergencies through a single universal number like 911; it uses separate three-digit lines for each service instead.
- Exists
- No
Healthcare
On Site Clinic
- Available
- Yes
- Specialists
- Specialists in internal medicine, traumatology, nursing and radiology are available.
- Description
- On-site clinic with doctors and nurses prepared for any illness or injury, offering 24/7 emergency medical services. Walk-in hours Monday to Saturday are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. The clinic has a full pharmacy and is staffed by some of Chile's finest doctors.
External Healthcare
- Access
- Healthcare in larger cities like Santiago is world-class, but treatment options are more limited in rural areas and equipment/facilities may not be adequate in comparison. Visitors and expats may not be able to access the public healthcare system; private insurance works more effectively within the private system, and visitors/expats prefer the private system for healthcare needs.
- Note
- Portillo is ~61 km from Los Andes (nearest city) and ~160 km from Santiago. For complex cases requiring hospitalization beyond resort clinic capacity, evacuation to Santiago private clinics is standard.
Pharmacies
At Resort
- Available
- Yes
- Description
- The Portillo clinic includes a full pharmacy.
General Chilean System
- Regulations
- Stronger medications (antibiotics, psychotropics, etc.) are very regulated, needing a prescription written by a doctor. The pharmacist can't dispense the stronger medications without a prescription from a doctor.
- Availability
- Most pharmacies in Chile are operational 24 hours a day; pharmacists are professionals and most medications that require a prescription are readily available in Chile pharmacies.
- Major Chains
- The top 5 most popular Pharmacy websites in Chile are: cruzverde.cl, salcobrand.cl, drsimi.cl, farmaciasahumada.cl, and ecofarmacias.cl.
- Cost Note
- Prices in pharmacy networks are really expensive and remain really high and quite consistent between chains. Ask systematically for generic drugs (¿tiene genericos?) — this is going to cost you 6 to 10 times less than what they want to sell you.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
Sources cited for this category
These are the sources cited in this emergencies research for this city. Individual figures may not each trace to one of them.
More About Portillo
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.