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Healthcare

Healthcare system, hospitals, and medical services in Portugal.

The neoclassical granite block of the Hospital de Santo Antonio in Porto seen from a street corner, its pediment topped by a stone statue against a clear sky

Porto's Santo Antonio Scheduled 193 Extra Operating Programmes for September, and Orthopaedics and Neurosurgery Received None of Them

The northern doctors' union says an internal circular cuts additional surgical production to about a third of the usual volume. Official data put 7,835 patients on the unit's surgical waiting list in June, 1,378 of them past the guaranteed response time.

The Portugal Brief 14 Sep 2026

The Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca in Amadora seen from below, with a bronze bust on a stone plinth in front of the entrance canopy.

Forty Percent of the Patients at Amadora-Sintra Are Foreign Nationals, and the Hospital Has Eight Emergency Doctors Where It Needs Thirty

Sandra Cavaca took over one of Portugal's most pressured hospitals in February. Eleven doctors have left the fixed emergency team, 200,000 people in its area have no family doctor, and it holds 0.8 beds per thousand residents against a national 3.7.

The Portugal Brief 13 Sep 2026

The Hospital de Santa Maria in Lisbon at night, its floodlit main block behind scaffolding, with flags and the hospital banner over the central entrance

Twenty-Five Patients Who Would Have Been Flown to England Were Operated On in Lisbon Instead, and the Saving Is Put at More Than 1.5 Million Euros a Year

Santa Maria's pulmonary thromboendarterectomy programme, built with the Royal Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, has recorded 25 operations in two and a half years. Until it opened, the national standard let a Portuguese centre meet the rules by sending cases abroad.

The Portugal Brief 13 Sep 2026

The stone and glass facade of the Hospital da Luz private hospital in Lisbon, photographed from the pavement below against a clear blue sky.

Portugal Passed Four Million Health-Insurance Holders in 2025 at an Average 437 Euros a Year, and 63 Percent of Complaints Ended Against the Customer

The insurance regulator's 2025 scorecard puts the average premium per insured person at 437.21 euros, individual policies at 452.38 and employer schemes at 423.90. It also counted 3,954 closed complaints, most of them about a claim rather than a price.

The Portugal Brief 12 Sep 2026

Porto city hall at the head of the Avenida dos Aliados, with a reflecting pool and magnolia trees in front of the clock tower

Porto Is Paying for Five Health Centres Itself, Almost Eleven Million Euros After the Recovery Plan Covered Just 300,000

Pedro Duarte says a failed handover of units and equipment left the city unable to apply inside the Recovery Plan window, so the municipal budget absorbed a bill drawn up on the assumption of EU money. Two centres are open; the two costly ones finish in 2028.

The Portugal Brief 12 Sep 2026

A yellow and blue INEM ambulance marked Instituto Nacional de Emergencia Medica and 112, parked on a paved forecourt

INEM's Technicians Call Off Their 14 and 28 September Strikes After Fifty-Six Ambulances Are Left Where They Are

Four hours at the Health Ministry, with the minister and INEM's president both present, ended the dispute. The plan to convert 46 life-support ambulances becomes a pilot covering 15.

The Portugal Brief 12 Sep 2026

A construction worker in a helmet and fall-arrest harness standing on a tower crane mast against open sky in Lisbon, guiding the yellow slewing unit down into place.

Work Accidents in Portugal in 2026: A Practical Guide to Lei 98/2009, the 48 Hours to Report One, the Commute That Counts, and What the Insurer Must Pay

Work accident cover in Portugal does not come from Social Security. It comes from an insurer your employer must name on your payslip. What counts as an accident, what the commute covers, the three reporting deadlines, and the percentages of pay the law guarantees.

The Portugal Brief 11 Sep 2026

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