Guides
Donating Breast Milk in Portugal
Who can donate surplus breast milk in Portugal, how the Lisbon and Porto milk banks check and collect it, and which babies receive donor milk.
Hospitals
SNS
Five Obstetricians Leave the Maternidade Alfredo da Costa to Rebuild Vila Franca de Xira's Service, Which Is Down to One Doctor
Six specialists join Vila Franca de Xira hospital on 1 November, five of them from Lisbon's largest maternity unit. What changes for pregnant women, and what the departures mean for the MAC.
Health
Infarmed Extends SNS Funding of Cystic Fibrosis Drugs to Patients Without the Common Mutation
Infarmed has approved SNS hospital funding for Kaftrio in patients aged 2 and over without the F508del mutation, and for Vertex's newer once-daily Alyftrek from age 6. Who qualifies, how they get it and what is still unknown.
Guides
Getting Free Transport to Hospital Appointments in Portugal
When the SNS pays for a non-urgent ambulance or patient car to take you to treatment, who qualifies, the 2026 income limit, and how to ask.
Azores
The Azores' First Budget Without Recovery Money: Investment Falls to 1,057 Million Euros, and Health Gets 270 Million More
The draft plan and budget for 2027 forecast a 112 million euro deficit and slower growth as tourism weakens, while nearly doubling the money spent promoting the islands. The regional assembly votes in November.
SNS
Nearly 87,000 SNS Patients Had Waited Longer Than the Law Allows for Surgery by the End of July, and Half the List at Lisbon's São José Is Overdue
Official SNS data show 30.5 percent of the 284,210 people waiting for planned surgery are past the legal maximum, up from 28.2 percent a year ago. In the north it is under one in five; in the Algarve, one in two.
Health
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.