The Prime Minister says the Minister of Health will remain in post and announces 'the largest investment in the last decade' for INEM (National Institute of Medical Emergency). He also insists: 'It is incorrect to say that the SNS (Portugal's National Health Service) is collapsing.'
After three deaths due to lack of emergency assistance, Montenegro says the health system 'responds more quickly than a year ago'
Thursday, 8 January 2026RSS
Context & Explainers
The Alfredo da Costa Maternity Hospital (Maternidade Alfredo da Costa) is Lisbon’s main public maternity centre and the busiest maternity within Portugal’s SNS (Serviço Nacional de Saúde). For residents and expectant parents it is a key referral hospital for high‑risk pregnancies and neonatal care and often handles more births and complex cases than other public units.
Luís Cabral is the president of INEM (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica), the agency that coordinates Portugal’s pre‑hospital emergency services and medical dispatch for 112 calls. In the recent story he said delays were caused by stretchers being held up in hospitals, which can tie up ambulances and reduce the system’s ability to respond to new emergencies.
ESPAP is the Shared Services Entity of the Public Administration (Entidade de Serviços Partilhados da Administração Pública). It handles central procurement and other shared services for state bodies, and in this case it awarded a public tender launched last year to buy 275 vehicles for INEM (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica) to three economic operators.
The eight‑minute response‑time standard is the target maximum time INEM sets for emergency medical teams to reach life‑threatening calls, typically in urban areas. INEM (Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica) uses it as a performance goal, but traffic, narrow roads and long rural distances often make actual response times much longer.
Family medicine (Medicina Geral e Familiar) is the medical specialty that provides continuous primary care through family doctors who manage common illnesses, chronic diseases and preventive care. In Portugal these specialists are the backbone of the SNS (Serviço Nacional de Saúde); the story notes 57 doctors finished the specialty and 38 stayed in the NHS, giving family doctors to about 77,500 patients.
