The new centres will be created in regions with a lower-than-average rate of residents without a family doctor for more than twelve months.
As part of the Health Emergency and Transformation Plan, new health centres run by the private and social sectors in collaboration with city councils will be created in regions with a lower-than-average rate of residents without a family doctor for more than twelve months. This is one of the ordinance requirements published last week in the Official Gazette of the Union that regulates registrations for creating new Family Health Units Model C (USF-C) and their subsequent monitoring.
This is good news for those who still need a GP, as, according to the latest data from the National Health Service’s transparency portal, 1,566,436 healthcare users in mainland Portugal did not have a family doctor in October this year.
The regulation endorsed by Cristina Vaz Tomé, the Secretary of State for Health Management, stipulates that the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) must assess the demand for establishing these USF-C annually. Another condition is that there should be a minimum of 4,000 people who do not have a family doctor. Once both prerequisites have been validated, the DE-SNS suggests the creation of a USF-C to the Finance and Health Ministries.
According to the ordinance, USF-C is an additional primary healthcare framework comprising voluntarily assembled teams of doctors, nurses, and technical assistants. It is believed that these teams will respond with greater functional and technical autonomy to the population’s health needs.
The government approved the decree-law for creating health centres managed by the private and social sectors and local authorities in September. In the first phase, 20 are planned in the regions with the greatest need for family doctors: 10 in Lisbon and the Tagus Valley, five in Leiria, and five in the Algarve.
According to the ordinance published last week, future USF-C will have to be composed of an adequate number (to be defined in the contract and care commitment) of doctors specialising in general and family medicine and nurses specialising in family health nursing.
Furthermore, the document states that these healthcare professionals and the partners or shareholders of the entity promoting the candidate USF-C must not have had any contractual engagements with the public health sector over the last three years.
The first 20 were expected to be contested in July, with the objective of “starting operations before the end of the year. With the application regulations published only last week, just over a month before the end of the year, the Ministry of Health said that “it has already received many expressions of interest” for creating these USF-C.
The plan also foresees that these 20 USF-C would cover 180,000 healthcare users, half of whom are in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, the region with the country’s greatest shortage of family doctors.
Two more phases of the public tender for implementing the new USF-C in the Lisbon region should be launched in 2025. Together with the tender scheduled for this year, these aim to cover 360,000 healthcare users.
A USF-C can be established via a process open to the market under the Public Contracts Code or by agreeing to provide healthcare services. Applications must be submitted electronically to the Central Administration of the Healthcare System (ACSS).
Additionally, the law mandates that once implemented, the local health agency that commissioned the USF-C must review its performance every three months.
Simultaneously, the DE-SNS and ACSS perform annual checks to confirm the contractual obligations are being met. If applicable, the fines stated in the agreement may be enacted for non-compliance, and the reports must be posted on each entity’s website.
