FMUC Population Survey: 85.4% of Portuguese Want Cuidados Paliativos (Palliative Care) Made Top SNS Priority — 65.4% Prefer to Die at Home

A fresh national survey published on 9 June by the Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Coimbra (Faculty of Medicine of the University of Coimbra, FMUC) and the Centro de Inovação em Biomedicina e Biotecnologia (Centre for Innovation in Biomedicine and Biotechnology, CIBB) finds that 85.4% of Portuguese adults rate cuidados paliativos (palliative care) as a high-importance area for the Serviço Nacional de Saúde (National Health Service, SNS), with 67.1% specifically arguing the speciality should receive maximum priority and a further 18.3% backing high priority. The fieldwork, conducted between 8 and 24 May 2026 with a sample of 1,041 adults resident on the Portuguese mainland, lands as Health Minister António Lacerda Sales presses the SNS to expand the Rede Nacional de Cuidados Paliativos (National Palliative Care Network).

Where the public wants end-of-life care to happen

Two-thirds of respondents — 65.4% — said their preferred place of death is at home, with the breakdown sitting at 58.1% in the respondent's own residence, 7.3% at a family member or friend's home, and a further 8.1% inside a dedicated palliative care unit. The home-death preference has climbed sharply over the past sixteen years: an analogue study by the same FMUC team in 2010 recorded 51% backing for dying at home, meaning the 2026 reading marks a 14-percentage-point shift toward family-setting care. Hospital wards — the default location for the majority of deaths recorded by INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatística — Statistics Portugal) — continue to be the least-preferred end-of-life setting in the survey.

A separate item showed 55.1% of respondents have personally cared for or supported a dying family member or close friend in recent years, a base of lived experience that researchers say lends weight to the policy preferences captured in the questionnaire.

Bárbara Gomes: results are 'new evidence for the SNS response'

The study was coordinated by Bárbara Gomes, FMUC and CIBB investigator and one of Portugal's most-cited palliative care academics. In remarks distributed alongside the release, Gomes said the findings "bring new data to support public policy and to reinforce the SNS response in end-of-life care." Co-author Mayra Delalibera added that the survey "reveals a public desire for strengthened home-based response structures, ensuring palliative care reaches people in the place they wish to be."

The investigators set out four policy recommendations: expand domiciliary palliative care teams; widen specialised inpatient beds and consult-liaison services; address territorial inequalities in coverage across the mainland and autonomous regions; and reinforce the Rede Nacional de Cuidados Paliativos for both adult and paediatric populations. Funding came from the Cátedra Floriani em Cuidados Paliativos da FMUC and the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Foundation for Science and Technology, FCT).

Why it matters now

The Ministry of Health's most recent Rede Nacional de Cuidados Paliativos balance, released earlier in 2026, flagged that more than half of patients referred to palliative care in 2024 died before a place opened — an attrition rate that has hovered above the 50% mark for three consecutive reporting cycles. The FMUC survey reframes that operational gap as a democratic mandate: with 85.4% of adults treating the service as a top-tier SNS commitment, the Ministério da Saúde (Ministry of Health) is under fresh pressure to translate the May Tempestade Perfeita SNS budget refit and the recent €50 million urgência infrastructure programme into bed and team expansion across the palliative network.