The Order of Nurses has proposed that assigning family nurses to patients without a GP should be a national priority to better manage chronic disease and support an ageing population.

The diagnosis is clear: the NHS is not a failed system, it is an overloaded and emotionally divided system.

António Strecht argues that NHS reform should focus on sustained evolution and the adaptation of founding principles rather than a complete systemic rupture.

The lack of a National Commission for palliative care in Portugal has led to fragmented services, leaving teams reliant on local management and resulting in significant regional disparities in patient care.

APIFARMA president João Almeida Lopes warns that rising inflation and external economic pressures will inevitably lead to an increase in medicine prices.

Generic medicines provided over 666 million euros in savings for the State and families in 2025, marking a slight 0.6% decline from the previous year, as the pharmaceutical sector faces economic pressures from rising fuel costs and geopolitical instability.

The Portuguese Firefighters League is seeking urgent meetings with the President and Prime Minister to address financial instability, rising fuel costs, and the need to renegotiate emergency service agreements with the government.

The ACSS clarifies that new NHS registration rules, aimed at updating inactive user lists, will not result in a loss of healthcare access for patients.

The article advocates for equitable access to biologic treatments for patients with severe asthma, emphasizing the need to update Ordinance No. 261/2024/1 to ensure that these patients receive the same level of care as those with other chronic conditions. It frames this issue as an ethical and social imperative, highlighting the injustice faced by asthma patients in accessing necessary medical treatments.

Mayors in Barreiro are opposing the closure of the obstetrics and gynaecology emergency unit, citing that over 16,000 births have occurred there between 2014 and 2024. They find the decision to close the unit incomprehensible, especially in light of ongoing healthcare challenges, such as ambulances being held for hours at other emergency departments due to high patient volumes.

The number of patients without an assigned family doctor has increased, reaching 1.6 million in January. This rise is attributed to a growing demand for healthcare services, with an additional 231,000 patients in the NHS over the past year.

Directors from leading cardiology services are advocating for the strengthening of existing cardiology centres rather than the establishment of new facilities. They argue that the creation of new reference centres undermines the current model established in 2023, as it does not significantly increase the system's capacity and may even weaken it.

Update: Opposition to New Facilities

Directors of three of the country's leading cardiology services have voiced their opposition to the opening of new reference centres, stating that the expansion of services “hardly increases the actual capacity of the system” and may even weaken it.

The Portuguese Society of Cardiology has initiated a public petition advocating for state funding of a diabetes and obesity treatment that costs 250 euros per month. This move highlights the growing demand for accessible healthcare solutions in managing these chronic conditions.

This article explores the multifaceted impact of community on various aspects of life, particularly focusing on healthcare, public safety, and the cost of living for expatriates. It analyzes how community dynamics influence individual experiences and the overall quality of life.

Doctors are advocating for a new approach to monitoring pregnant women, emphasizing the need for a system that avoids overlap in care. This call to action follows a government initiative aimed at establishing a low-risk pregnancy monitoring project in regions where family doctor coverage is insufficient. The proposal seeks to enhance healthcare services for expectant mothers while ensuring that medical oversight is streamlined and effective.

In 2025, over two thousand professionals retired from the NHS, raising concerns about the potential impact on patient care and public safety. Reports indicate that this mass retirement could lead to significant challenges in healthcare delivery, prompting calls for urgent reforms to address staffing shortages and ensure continued quality of care.

Ventura presents a manifesto that tackles the challenges encountered by individuals who identify as more or less openly in society, focusing on legal rights, healthcare reform, and policy changes.

As the official campaign week begins ahead of the run-off, Seguro is emphasising concrete policy areas—notably healthcare and defence—to court issue-focused and undecided voters with substantive proposals. By contrast, Ventura is maintaining daily grassroots contact through street and market visits, relying on visibility and personal outreach to energise supporters. The contrast between a policy-driven strategy and retail politics will shape narratives and could be decisive in persuading the run-off electorate.

This article explains what clinicians and expectant mothers mean when they say paracetamol is “safe in pregnancy”. It clarifies that safety is relative: paracetamol is generally recommended as the first-line option for fever and mild-to-moderate pain because evidence from trials and guideline reviews shows a favorable risk–benefit profile compared with alternatives, but observational studies have suggested possible small associations with neurodevelopmental outcomes (eg, ADHD, ASD) that remain uncertain and may reflect confounding. Practical guidance is summarised: use the lowest effective dose for the shortest necessary time, avoid routine long-term or high-dose use, seek personalised advice from a healthcare professional (especially for repeated or high-dose use), and consider non-drug measures where appropriate. The piece emphasises evidence limitations, the importance of shared decision-making, and following national maternity-care guidance for expat and local patients alike.

Portugal is seeing a slowdown in influenza activity but excess mortality continues. According to the Portuguese Network of Laboratories for the Diagnosis of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, hospitals reported 73,292 respiratory infection cases and 14,243 laboratory-confirmed influenza cases since 29 September 2025. While incidence appears to be falling, the persistence of excess deaths suggests ongoing severity, possible impacts from co-circulating respiratory pathogens, delayed healthcare presentation or vulnerable populations, and underscores the need for continued surveillance and healthcare capacity planning.

Hans Jørgen Wiberg, who was born in Denmark in 1965 and lives with tunnel vision, co‑founded Be My Eyes in 2015 to reduce everyday barriers for people who are blind or visually impaired. The mobile app connects users with sighted volunteers through live video calls so volunteers can provide remote visual assistance on demand. While the model has strong accessibility impact and low technical complexity, it depends on the scale and quality of a volunteer network and raises operational questions around reliability, privacy and availability. Given the headline framing as an “AI” app, the service also highlights an intersection where human‑in‑the‑loop assistance could be augmented by machine vision — offering potential scalability but bringing technical, ethical and usability trade‑offs that warrant careful deployment.

Despite repeated technical assessments, confirmed financial capacity and clear structural proposals, the SNS and INEM keep failing to deliver timely emergency responses. This analysis points to implementation gaps — weak governance, fragmented coordination between national and regional bodies, staffing shortages and poor resource allocation — rather than lack of solutions; the result is delayed care that harms patients (including expats) and undermines public wellbeing. Addressing the problem requires transparent accountability, an independent audit of operational bottlenecks, data-driven redistribution of resources and political commitment to implement already-defined reforms.

In 2025, 14.26% of people reported not seeking healthcare when needed, reflecting significant access barriers in Portugal. More than half of the poorest households cannot afford all prescribed medication, while over 50% of initial consultations in the National Health Service (SNS) occur outside the appropriate timeframe. These findings point to intersecting problems of affordability and timeliness that disproportionately affect low-income groups and signal the need for targeted policy responses to improve medication coverage, reduce waiting times and strengthen primary-care access.

Rising costs of medicines are a primary barrier to healthcare for the most disadvantaged, forcing some patients to cancel appointments and tests for lack of funds. This creates widening inequalities in health outcomes and places additional strain on services; addressing the problem requires policy responses such as targeted subsidies, improved coverage, price regulation and better access to affordable medicines.

Difficulties accessing the National Health Service (SNS) are driving patients away from exclusive reliance on public care and toward private healthcare. More than half of people report self-medicating and the majority do not inform their doctor, while those who can afford private care rarely revert to the SNS once they switch. The trend suggests growing segmentation in access and a potential long-term shift of wealthier patients out of the public system.

A new report finds episodes of illness rising particularly among younger people in Portugal, contributing to an overall increase in the number of people falling ill while persistent barriers to accessing the SNS (Serviço Nacional de Saúde) remain high. The data suggest growing pressure on primary and urgent care, uneven access driven by geographic, capacity and administrative constraints, and possible underlying drivers such as changing infection patterns, mental‑health needs and disruptions to routine care. The report calls for targeted policy responses to expand capacity, improve outreach to younger cohorts and reduce practical barriers to care, and for more granular analysis to identify regional and demographic causes.

Emergency departments and hospitals are experiencing significant difficulty admitting patients presenting with respiratory problems, creating bottlenecks in patient flow and raising concerns about care delays and safety. The situation appears driven by high demand for acute respiratory care combined with constrained inpatient capacity, staffing pressures and infection-control requirements that limit bed availability. This strain on emergency and hospital services risks longer waits, compromised care coordination and wider impacts on public health and system resilience unless capacity or operational responses are implemented.