Guides
Joining ADSE, the Public Sector Health Scheme in Portugal
Who can join ADSE, the 3.5% contribution, adding your family, using the ADSE network or claiming refunds, and how ADSE works alongside the SNS.
Healthcare
Healthcare system, hospitals, and medical services in Portugal.
News
Portugal Channels an Extra €630 Million Into the Health Service and Orders Four Air Ambulances Before the PRR Deadline
The government is adding about €630 million to health under the final revision of the PRR, funding 492 health units, thousands of continued-care beds and four new emergency-medical helicopters — all before the programme's 31 August deadline.
News
INEM's Pre-Hospital Technicians Call Two September Strikes Over an Ambulance Shake-Up They Brand a Dismantling
The STEPH union has called strikes for 14 and 28 September over a reorganisation that would move 54 ambulances to local health units and convert 46 life-support vehicles into cars that cannot carry patients — cutting roughly 100 ambulances from front-line response. The union calls it a dismantling o
News
A Cheaper Diabetes Generic Arrives, yet Some Patients Risk Paying €40 for a €5 Pill
A generic version of the diabetes drug dapagliflozin has entered Portugal's reference-pricing system, but the APDP warns that if pharmacies run out of the generic, patients buying the branded original could pay around €40 for a medicine that recently cost €4 to €5.
News
Portugal's Doctors Demand a National Earthquake-Resilience Audit of Hospitals and Regular Disaster Drills
The Ordem dos Medicos (Medical Association) wants a nationwide assessment of how well Portugal's hospitals would withstand a major earthquake, plus regular disaster drills, warning that a quake-damaged hospital becomes 'a catastrophe within a catastrophe' just when patients need it most.
News
A Dedicated SNS Career for Dentists Enters Force, Lifting 150 Public Practitioners Out of Precarious Contracts
Portugal has created a dedicated SNS career for dental doctors, published Tuesday in the Diário da República after a unanimous parliamentary vote. It gives the roughly 150 dentists in the public system proper grades and contracts for the first time, ending years of recibos-verdes precarity.
News
Ambulance Births Doubled in Portugal Last Year, and on Monday a Baby Arrived on the A9 After the Nearest Maternity Closed
A baby girl was born in a firefighters' ambulance on the A9 on Monday, unable to reach a maternity ward because the nearest one had closed. INEM says ambulance births in Portugal rose from 28 in 2024 to 60 in 2025 as obstetric emergencies concentrate into fewer, larger units.