Although there are now more doctors and nurses in Portugal, the number of public hospital beds has dropped by 3.000, says the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The institute analysed data between 2002 and 2012 and found that the number of doctors grew approximately 10.000, while the number of nurses registered an even larger increase of around 23.000.
On the other hand, INE reports that there are 3.000 fewer hospital beds compared to 2002, while private hospitals increased their count by 1.400.
Private hospitals also nearly doubled the amount of people treated for emergencies. They dealt with over 800,000 emergencies in 2012 – as opposed to 2002’s 460,000 – while public hospitals saw a drop of 4.8% of patients between 2010 and 2012. Nonetheless, state casualty units still accounted for over 88% of all emergency appointments.
INE’s research came as a result of the upcoming World Health Day, to be celebrated on April 7.
More doctors and nurses, less hospital beds
