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Healthcare

Healthcare system, hospitals, and medical services in Portugal.

The tiled facade of Farmacia Almeida in Lisbon, its blue and yellow azulejos framing four arched shopfronts, with a bicycle parked at the kerb and customers at the open door.

Portugal's Free Flu Shot Now Covers Every Child From Six Months to Four, and the Private Supply Is the Part Under Strain

Norma 006/2026 opens the campaign on 30 September and adds two, three and four year olds to the free list. The SNS bought 2.3 million standard doses; pharmacists say the separate private allocation may be smaller than in past years.

The Portugal Brief 17 Sep 2026

The lit Urgencia emergency entrance of Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon at night, with yellow INEM ambulances parked outside and staff in scrubs by the doors

Portugal Logged 3,658 Patient Safety Incidents Last Year, and Nine in Ten Came From Staff Rather Than Patients

The DGS released the Notifica figures for World Patient Safety Day. Falls and pressure ulcers lead both lists, the total has sat near 3,500 a year since 2022, and the system is anonymous and non-punitive by design: it is not the complaints route.

The Portugal Brief 17 Sep 2026

The lit Urgencia entrance of the Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon at night, with INEM ambulances parked outside and staff standing by the revolving door

The Pay Order That Decides Whether Portugal's Emergency Rooms Stay Staffed Has Still Not Been Published, and the Locums Are Threatening October

A portaria setting hourly rates for medicos tarefeiros was due with the rest of the SNS package and has not appeared. Their association says a cut brings a massive stoppage, and hospitals have until 30 September to sign contracts nobody can price.

The Portugal Brief 16 Sep 2026

The shopfront of a working high-street pharmacy in Viseu, with the green pharmacy cross lit above the pavement and two people standing outside.

Patients Paid 571 Million Euros at Portuguese Pharmacy Counters in Seven Months, While the State's Share Climbed Four Times Faster

INFARMED's July report puts patient spending at 571.6 million euros, up 2.1 percent, and the SNS share at 1,179.3 million, up 8.3 percent. The average co-payment per pack actually fell two cents. What rose was volume, and one diabetes class accounts for a third of the increase.

The Portugal Brief 15 Sep 2026

The curved glass and steel facade of the Berlaymont building in Brussels, headquarters of the European Commission, with three European Union flags flying in front of it under a pale sky.

A Non-EU Degree Takes Fourteen Months to Get Recognised in Europe, and Brussels Proposed on Tuesday to Cut That to Four

The Commission's Fair Labour Mobility package is five legislative proposals. The one that will be felt hardest in Portugal sets common standards for recognising a qualification earned outside the Union, where the current average wait is 14 months.

The Portugal Brief 15 Sep 2026

The low cream-coloured frontage of the Centro de Saude da Moita health centre in Portugal, its name in black letters above a canopy, with a van parked on the forecourt

Half of Portugal's Over-Fifties Have Had a Colonoscopy in Ten Years, and the Share Runs From 37 Percent Without Schooling to 56 Percent With a Degree

A new INE release digs into the 2025 National Health Survey and finds that education pushes preventive care in two opposite directions: the checks a nurse does in the room reach the least educated most, and the tests you have to book yourself reach them least.

The Portugal Brief 15 Sep 2026

The Hospital Curry Cabral in Lisbon seen from the street, its yellow blocks with red window surrounds standing behind a low wall, with cars parked outside and a crossing in the foreground.

The WHO Counted Sixty-Six Clade Ib Mpox Cases in Portugal in Six Weeks, More Than Germany, France and Britain Together

Monday's situation report puts Portugal third in Europe on cumulative clade Ib cases and first on recent ones. The last national bulletin the Direcção-Geral da Saúde published is dated 31 May 2025, and it says Portugal had recorded no clade Ib cases at all.

The Portugal Brief 14 Sep 2026

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