Private Ambulance Firms Plan Monday Slow Drive Across Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge Over Fuel Aid: Route, Times and What Patients Should Know

About 100 ambulances and other vehicles run by private patient transport companies will drive in a slow convoy across Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge on Monday 26 October, in protest at being left out of the Government's fuel aid. The Liga Portuguesa de Ambulâncias (LPA, the Portuguese Ambulance League) announced the protest on Thursday and published the meeting point and route on Friday, in statements reported by Lusa and carried by Observador and Notícias ao Minuto.

The firms, which carry SNS (Serviço Nacional de Saúde, the National Health Service) patients to non-urgent appointments, had said last week that they were weighing a slow-drive protest and could stop trips if nothing changed.

Route and times

• 07:00: vehicles gather at the Rotunda Sul in Almada, on the south bank.
• 08:00: the slow drive sets off along the A2 and across the 25 de Abril Bridge, heading first for Parque Eduardo VII in Lisbon.
• Then: the convoy continues to the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, the Assembleia da República (Parliament) and the Prime Minister's official residence at São Bento, in that order. At São Bento the league will hand over a memorandum of its demands.

The league asked drivers and residents for "understanding" over possible traffic disruption, and said the protest would be peaceful and would keep the way clear for vehicles on emergency calls.

What the league is asking for

"We do not want to stop carrying patients. We want the Government to give us the conditions to keep doing it," the LPA said. It says "months" of requests for meetings and warnings have produced no satisfactory solution, and makes three demands: inclusion in the extraordinary fuel aid on equal terms with other operators; a revision of the prices the SNS pays for patient transport, which are set administratively; and payment of overdue bills by SNS institutions, which it says leave many firms carrying the cost of finished work for months.

The aid decree, Decreto-Lei n.º 199/2026 of 7 October, covers taxis and the patient transport vehicles of volunteer fire brigades, as we reported when the second round of fuel aid was signed. "It is not acceptable that the State recognises the need to support some operators and leaves others out purely because of their legal form," the league said. No response from the Government or the Health Ministry had been reported by Sunday morning.

If you have an appointment on Monday

The league has not announced any halt to patient trips on Monday; its stated aim is a protest drive. Anyone travelling from the south bank into Lisbon early on Monday should allow extra time for traffic on the A2 and the bridge.

Under Portaria n.º 142-B/2012, non-urgent transport paid for by the SNS must be prescribed by an SNS doctor, who confirms your clinical condition at the time of the prescription. Patients going the same way, or to the same area at the same time, are grouped wherever possible, and the vehicle may detour by up to 10 km or 30 minutes to collect them, so build that into your plans. A single-patient ambulance needs a doctor's written justification, and a companion can travel when the doctor justifies it, for example with a patient under 18.

If a trip you are entitled to does not turn up, the Entidade Reguladora da Saúde (ERS, the Health Regulator) says to contact first the health unit that requested the transport, and to complain to the ERS if that does not resolve it. Our guide explains who qualifies for free transport to hospital appointments.