Four in Ten of Portugal's Incentivised Doctor Posts in Underserved Areas Went Unfilled in 2025, and the Government Offers 332 More This Year

Portugal's Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS, the National Health Service) left 128 of its 322 incentivised doctor posts in underserved areas empty in 2025, about 40 percent, according to figures the SNS Executive Board supplied to the newspaper Público, published on 17 October. The other 194 posts were filled.

The posts are part of a scheme that pays doctors extra to work in hospitals and health centres the government classes as "carenciadas" (underserved), usually in the interior, the Algarve and the fast-growing suburbs around Lisbon, where recruitment is hardest.

Where the doctors went

Family medicine took the largest share of the posts that were filled: 50 of the 194, or about a quarter by our calculation, according to the Executive Board's figures as reported by Público. Internal medicine followed with 32 doctors, then paediatrics with 20 and anaesthesiology with 15. Thirteen obstetrician-gynaecologists were hired across the country, six of them at the Almada-Seixal unidade local de saúde (ULS, local health unit), which runs Garcia de Orta hospital.

The ULS for the Leiria region recruited the most doctors under the scheme, 28 in total, including 16 family doctors. The Algarve ULS took 18, and Arco Ribeirinho, which covers Alcochete, Barreiro, Moita and Montijo, took 13, of whom 11 were family doctors. The Executive Board cautioned that the figures by specialty should be read with care, because the order opening the posts allows a vacancy to be moved to a different specialty from the one first planned.

What doctors are offered

The scheme rests on Decreto-Lei n.º 101/2015 (Decree-Law 101/2015), as last amended by the 2021 state budget. Under its current text, a doctor placed in an underserved post receives a monthly placement incentive, paid 12 months a year, worth 40 percent of the base salary at the first pay point of the entry-level specialist grade (assistente). The incentive lasts six years from the placement.

Doctors moving from another SNS post also receive a one-off relocation payment equal to 15 days of travel allowance, provided they stay at least five years. Non-cash benefits include two extra days of annual leave, a guaranteed school transfer for their children, and priority for a spouse or partner in some public-sector recruitment.

The law ties the definition of an underserved area to regional GDP per head, the number of doctors relative to the population served, performance and access indicators, distance to other health services and training capacity.

332 posts for 2026

For this year, the government has qualified 332 posts, ten more than the 322 counted for 2025. Despacho n.º 6094/2026 (Order 6094/2026), published in the Diário da República (the official gazette) on 13 May, splits them into 210 hospital posts, 109 in family medicine and 13 in public health. The largest hospital allocations are anaesthesiology (30), obstetrics and gynaecology (27) and internal medicine (26).

Among family medicine posts, the Amadora/Sintra ULS has the most, with 19, followed by Leiria with 18 and Arco Ribeirinho with 13. The order covers recruitment and transfers started from 1 January 2026, including the special evaluation round for doctors finishing their training. The decree-law says the list should be set in the first quarter of each year; this year's was signed in April and May.

The incentivised posts sit alongside the general hiring rounds for newly qualified specialists. Earlier this month we reported that junior doctors will choose from 2,338 specialist training places this year, and shortages in obstetrics have already forced hospitals to move staff, as when five obstetricians left the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa to rebuild Vila Franca de Xira's service.