Latest news and stories about sns in health in Portugal for expats and residents.
A report by the health regulator highlights that while NHS care coordination has improved, significant challenges remain, including doctor shortages, long wait times, and persistent regional inequalities across local health units.
If a strike is chosen as a protest strategy due to a parking issue, one must question whether the union action is flawed. Opinion by Ana Rita Bessa.
A new Hospital Referral Network for Paediatrics and Neonatology has been published for public consultation. The plan classifies 41 hospitals across Portugal to improve coordination, with only six level III centres designated to handle the most complex cases, such as rare diseases. The initiative aims to standardise care, optimise resources, and address regional asymmetries in the National Health Service.
This project aims to ensure accessibility to low-risk pregnancy monitoring and continuity of care during the postpartum period. It also mandates the creation of a Monitoring Committee.
The project aims to ensure monitoring for pregnant women without a family doctor in Local Health Units (ULS) with low coverage of General and Family Medicine.
The president of the College of Paediatrics explains that many pregnancies among foreign mothers reach the National Health Service (SNS) with delayed monitoring, “which implies less careful follow-up.”
Fortunately, the urgency of a medical 're-humanisation' is already shaping the future beyond our borders at universities of excellence.
A new government order allows patients to be removed from family doctor lists if they have not had contact with the National Health Service (SNS) for more than five years. An official from the association denounces that this option ignores the possibility that patients may simply be healthy.
More than 262,000 patients do not have their registration updated, which is a condition for keeping a family doctor. The Medical Association states that having no contact with the National Health Service “may not mean an absence of health needs”.
This is a consequence of the new referral network for gynaecology and obstetrics in the National Health Service. This is the headline story in the Público newspaper.
Infarmed has referred 19 cases to the Public Prosecutor's Office following inspections into the overbilling of diabetes medications and glucose monitoring devices, uncovering significant irregularities within pharmacies.
The measure, which comes into effect in June, puts 122,000 people at risk of losing their family doctor and is criticised by the Association of General and Family Medicine, which considers that the structural problem of the NHS lies in the recruitment of doctors and not in the reorganisation of patient lists.
Patients who have not visited health centres in five years may lose their family doctor. There are almost 122,000 such cases, but another 263,000 are at risk due to not having updated records.
A new government order mandates that patients who have had no contact with the National Health Service (SNS) for over five years will be removed from their family doctor's list to free up vacancies for others. While the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) claims this is an administrative update to improve access and data quality, the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF) warns that it could hinder proactive care, such as vaccinations and screenings, and may trigger a rush of patients to health centres to avoid being removed from lists.
All users assigned a family doctor who have not had contact with the National Health Service (SNS) for more than five years risk losing their family doctor, reports the newspaper Público (paid access). Until now, this rule only applied to emigrants and foreigners without a medical appointment record in the system.
PS Socialists are calling for an urgent hearing in parliament of the executive director of Portugal’s SNS health service, Álvaro Almeida, following allegations that ‘instructions have been given not to The post PS query alleged instructions to ‘block national health consultations and surgeries’ appeared first on Portugal Resident.
The Socialist Party (PS) requested an urgent parliamentary hearing for SNS Executive Director Álvaro Almeida to clarify whether instructions were issued to freeze the number of consultations and surgeries in 2026 and restrict financial resources. The PS also requested a hearing for the President of the Portuguese Medical Association, Carlos Cortes. Reports suggest the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) instructed hospital boards to cap production to reduce expenditure, a claim the DE-SNS has denied. The PS argues that such measures could increase waiting lists and demands clarification on the technical and clinical foundations of these directives, as well as the impact on hospital funding and emergency services.
Clinicians are criticising the measure implemented “by the book”. The change threatens to leave 121,959 users who have not contacted a health centre or a Local Health Unit (ULS) since the pandemic without a doctor.
The National Health Service (SNS) in Portugal is facing a significant financial crisis, with a reported negative balance of 1.035 billion euros and a debt to external suppliers of 1.510 billion euros. Despite an increase in consultations and surgeries, waiting lists are growing, and more patients are without family doctors. The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, has not addressed how state policies contribute to the decline of public health services, particularly through tax deductions for private health services. This system encourages the use of private healthcare, undermining public services and leading to a financial strain on the SNS. The article raises critical questions about the sustainability of public health funding and the fairness of tax policies that benefit private healthcare users at the expense of those relying solely on public services.
Two of the maternity hospitals with the highest number of births in Portugal are private institutions, a shift that analysts link to the country’s rising caesarean rate, now at a record high. The expansion of deliveries in the private sector appears to be a key driver of growing caesarean use nationally, while within the SNS the public unit with the most births is Maternidade Alfredo da Costa. The pattern raises questions about clinical practice variation between sectors, implications for maternal and neonatal outcomes, and the need for policy and oversight to address incentives and standardise care.
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.
Successive administrative integrations have eroded the distinct identity and operational autonomy of hospitals within Portugal’s National Health Service (SNS). The creation of sprawling Local Health Units (ULSs) — some with budgets exceeding €1 billion — has not been matched by adequate management capacity, leaving facilities ill-equipped to coordinate care, manage resources or respond to demand spikes. The dysfunction manifests in visible emergency problems — overcrowded trolleys, delayed ambulances and stressed staff — and points to a need for targeted governance, management investment and policy reform to restore operational effectiveness and protect patient care.
Presidential candidate André Pestana argues that funds currently routed to private healthcare providers should instead be invested in the NHS. He says greater NHS investment would strengthen health professionals' careers and deliver practical improvements — for example, better ambulances available sooner — reducing reliance on private sector services.
In response to an ERS warning about diagnostic delays, the association of private hospitals says it has the capacity to meet the SNS’s demand but is urging the Government to guarantee the resources, contracts and regulatory clarity needed to mobilise that capacity. The claim highlights a policy tension over using private provision to reduce diagnostic backlogs while ensuring adequate public funding and oversight.
