The data is based on monitoring of waiting times in the SNS state health service which concluded that, on June 30, a total of 7,538 victims of cancer were waiting for scheduled surgery, 7,468 of whom were in the public sector.
Compared to the same period in 2024, this represented a 4.7% increase – and as too often happens, a number of those awaiting surgery at the end of the first half of the year saw the maximum guaranteed response times (TMRG) exceeded.
ERS data does show that during the first half of the year, 37,195 cancer surgeries were performed – 92.6% of which were in public health facilities. This represents an increase in overall activity of 6.9%.
The report, which analyses data on cancer surgeries separately from other surgeries because they have specific TMGRs, states that this growth in surgical activity in public hospitals may be justified by the exceptional incentive scheme to reduce waiting lists for patients with suspected or confirmed cancer, outside the TMRG.
Of the total number of patients undergoing surgery in the first half of the year in SNS hospitals, 19.5% were subject to waiting times exceeding the legal limit established for their oncological priority level.
What about other surgeries?
With regard to other surgeries – excluding oncological and cardiac surgeries – ERS found that on June 30 there were 200,307 patients on the waiting list, 192,209 (96%) of whom were waiting in public sector hospitals, 3,593 (1.8%) in protocol hospitals and 4,505 (2.2%) in destination hospitals, which include private and social sector units with agreements under the Integrated Management System for Surgery Registrants (SIGIC).
Compared to the same period in 2024, this represents a 2.8% decrease in the total number of patients waiting – but it has to be remembered that to get on a waiting list, patients have had to have been seen by a specialist (and this process too is a quagmire). ERS reports that as of June 30, almost one million people were waiting for their first consultation in a public hospital – more than half of these also having had to wait beyond the maximum response time.
As for the total number of people who were operated on in public hospitals up to the end of June, 13.2% were subject to waiting times exceeding the limit set for their priority level.
Cardiology
ERS data indicates that in the first six months of 2025, 4,904 scheduled surgeries were performed, all in the SNS, with 32.7% of patients subject to longer than expected waiting times.
On June 30, 2,437 patients were waiting for heart surgery, 56.9% of whom had been waiting longer than the legal limit.
And today, with a full-on public sector strike, thousands of people anxious to get their health problem/s tackled will have almost certainly found themselves going home without answers.
sources: SIC/ LUSA
