Portugal’s beleaguered SNS state health service balance stood at -€1.035 billion in 2025 – an improvement of €533.9 billion compared to the same period last year, the health minister announced today.
In her opening speech at the parliamentary health committee hearing, Minister Ana Paula Martins explained that, with capital appropriations made (€1.311.4 billion), the overall balance was €276.3 million.
As for total debt to external suppliers, the figure reached €1.510.3 billion, an increase of €148.1 billion compared to the same period last year.
The minister stressed “the clear effort” to bring payments into line, highlighting the reduction of debt to suppliers in January of €916.9 million (down 37.8%) compared to December 2025.
Ana Paula Martins also referred to “historic figures” achieved in 2025 in surgical activity, as well as “the reduction in the total number of emergency episodes, considering that these figures reflect measures taken to reorganise users’ access to healthcare”.
All of this must be taken into context of ‘jargon speech’: the trials of people trying to access Portugal’s state healthcare continue very much as they always have – but the minister’s message appears to be that ‘things are getting better’, not worse.
The reorganisation of systems and practices continue, with the first regional obstetrics and gynaecology emergency departments to be up and running “shortly”.
“The first regional external emergency services will be in the area of obstetrics and gynaecology and will be operational shortly in the Setúbal Peninsula, centred on the Garcia de Orta Hospital, and at the Local Health Unit (ULS) in Vila Franca de Xira and the ULS Beatriz Ângelo,” said Martins – assuring MPs that the process is being “worked on directly with professionals in the field,” who have been called upon to help find solutions to meet the demand for emergency services.
“We are not imposing administrative models that are disconnected from clinical reality, but rather responses with those who know the services, the teams and the needs of the population,” said the minister.
Ana Paula Martins has benefitted recently from less media focus on her ministry due to the damages the country has faced during the ‘carousel of storms’ that hit from late January to the middle of this month.
Source material: LUSA
