Médio Tejo's Mobile Nursing Units Now Cover Seven Towns, and Storm-Hit Mação Accounts for 702 of Their 1,169 Consultations

The mobile health units run by the Unidade Local de Saúde (ULS) do Médio Tejo have carried out 1,169 nursing consultations since February, and are now extending their routes to reach all seven municipalities the project was designed for. More than half of that work has been done in one place: Mação, where the service was expanded after the storms earlier this year and where 702 of the consultations took place.

"It is not enough to wait for people to come to the services: we also have to create responses capable of reaching those who live further away, have less mobility or face greater difficulties of access," the chair of the ULS board, Casimiro Ramos, told the Lusa news agency on Wednesday.

Where the units go

The project, funded by Portugal's post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), started in Alcanena, Tomar and Torres Novas and has since been extended and consolidated in Abrantes, Mação, Sardoal and Vila de Rei, in the districts of Santarém and Castelo Branco.

• Mação: coverage began on 2 February at the Amêndoa hub and in Cardigos, which was served until 17 April. Vale de Cardigos joined the route on 6 May and the town of Mação itself on 1 July. The unit now calls at Vale de Cardigos on Wednesdays from 11:30 to 12:30 and at Amêndoa from 14:00 to 16:00.
• Abrantes: a new route covers Fontes, Martinchel, Vale das Mós and São Facundo, with visits on Mondays and Fridays.
• Vila de Rei: the unit runs on Tuesdays in ten localities, on a schedule agreed with the municipality.
• Sardoal: the route is still being finalised with the town council.

What the nurses do

The units provide nursing care and follow people with chronic illness, particularly diabetes and high blood pressure. They carry out treatments, vaccinations, screenings and injections, and check clinical readings. The teams can also identify people who have become dependent or who have other health or social needs and refer them on, and they can set up a teleconsultation with a doctor where that is clinically necessary and technically possible.

Ramos was careful about what the service is not. The units "do not replace the family doctor or the health units", he said, but they complement what exists and help spot needs earlier that might otherwise go unanswered.

The wider picture in the region

The ULS Médio Tejo runs three hospitals, in Abrantes, Tomar and Torres Novas, and 35 primary care units, directly serving about 170,000 people in 11 municipalities. Between January and August its primary care services delivered 380,492 medical consultations and 213,299 nursing contacts, each 1.7 percent more than in the same period of 2025. Consultations with other health professionals rose 10.3 percent to 19,644, and home visits grew 20.7 percent for doctors and 7.8 percent for nurses, a total of close to 30,000 interventions.

For residents of the villages on the routes, the practical point is the timetable: the units keep fixed days and hours in each place, so the best way to find out when one calls near you is through your local health centre or town council, which the ULS says it works with on the schedules.