Latest news and stories about family doctors in Portugal for expats and residents.
Some companies are offering family doctors more than €7,000 in salary to work in Health Units managed by private operators. It is a controversial issue because the public recruitment competition for vacancies in the SNS (National Health Service) is taking place at the same time.
A large proportion of the posts remained vacant. The union says many doctors will not wait 'indefinitely' for the competitions and therefore move to the private sector or take on contract work.
The second-round recruitment only managed to attract 50 family doctors, with over 70% of posts in the Lisbon region remaining unfilled. Amadora-Sintra filled 9 of the 12 vacancies.
Privately managed health centres will open in regions with the lowest coverage of family doctors.
