PS Socialists are calling for an urgent hearing in parliament of the executive director of Portugal’s SNS health service, Álvaro Almeida, following allegations that ‘instructions have been given not to increase the number of surgeries or consultations in 2026, and to restrict financial resources’.
As well as wanting to hear Álvaro Almeida, the PS also wants to hear president of the Order of Physicians, Carlos Cortes, on the same subject.
According to Lusa, the socialists’ request follows news that the SNS executive board (DE-SNS) “in compliance with the government’s guidelines on reducing expenditure, has instructed the chairpersons of the Boards of Directors of the Local Health Units (ULS) and the Portuguese Orthopaedic Institute (IPO) not to increase healthcare provision, namely consultations and surgeries”.
The PS also cites the board as having said “there will be no increase in financial and human resources beyond what is already planned for this year.
“According to the announcement, the central message conveyed by the DE-SNS caused discontent among hospital administrators, which have already warned that a possible stagnation in the number of consultations and surgeries will increase waiting lists, and that if production remains similar to that of 2025, the number of users waiting for surgery and/ or consultations in public hospitals will increase again,” says the socialists’ text.
Earlier this week, the Order of Physicians criticised what it called “the orientation of the DE-SNS in blocking, in 2026, the increase in consultations and surgeries in hospitals and limiting the necessary reinforcement of financial and human resources”, wrote Lusa – stressing at the same time that the DE-SNS denied having given any instructions to this effect.
Clearly, PS Socialists are not convinced.
“It is essential that the Executive Director of the SNS clarifies the content, scope and technical, financial and clinical basis of the guidelines issued by the DE-SNS, the potential impact of these measures on the evolution of waiting lists for consultations and surgery, on the internal organisation of services and on the coordination between hospital care, primary health care and the contracted sector, and the impact of these measures on the response capacity of the SNS”, they challenge – stressing that hospital directors have also been advised this year that part of the financing available to them “will depend on the capacity to maintain A&E departments open, with cuts in finance applied when this does not happen.”
Source material: LUSA
