“The necessary legislation for the creation of this Unit is being finalized and will be submitted to the Council of Ministers by the end of the month,” stated the office of the Minister of Health in a written note sent to Lusa.
The establishment of a Fraud Combat Unit in the SNS, reported today by Jornal de Notícias, was already included in the Government’s Program.
According to the Ministry of Health, in the note sent today to Lusa, “the mission of the new unit is to detect, prevent, and combat fraud, abuse, and irregularities, with the aim of ensuring that public resources invested in the SNS are used to serve the citizens.”
The unit, which will operate nationally, will work “in collaboration with the Judiciary Police and the Attorney General’s Office, among other entities.”
In May, it was reported that a dermatologist at Santa Maria Hospital, in Lisbon, allegedly received 400,000 euros for 10 Saturdays of additional work in 2024, with one of the days used for removing benign lesions from the parents.
On Wednesday, the executive director of the SNS deemed it “perfectly possible” for a doctor who “works a lot” to earn 400,000 euros a year from performing additional surgeries in public hospitals to reduce waiting lists.
“If there was no fraud— we don’t know, because the inquiry is not concluded— but it is perfectly possible that there is no fraud and a doctor who works a lot has a remuneration in the 400,000 euros range in a year. We cannot conclude from there that there is a lack of control,” stated the head of the Executive Board of the National Health Service (DE-SNS), Álvaro Almeida, during a parliamentary hearing.
Last month, it was learned that a dermatologist from the same hospital had registered performing surgeries in her name on a day she was attending a congress in Italy, and allegedly received 113,000 euros for seven Saturdays of additional work.
On Thursday, TVI/CNN reported that Braga hospital made several contracts, valued at over 27 million euros, with the company of the director of the Ophthalmology Department, who also held private coordination functions.
Braga Hospital entered into contracts worth over 27 million euros over 15 years with a company owned by Fernando Vaz, director of the Ophthalmology Department of the same hospital.
Lusa with Notícias ao Minuto | 11:51 – 18/07/2025
The ministry recalls that “the creation of specialized units to combat fraud in the public health sector is a common practice in many developed countries,” including the United Kingdom and Denmark.
According to Jornal de Notícias, the new unit is expected to be operational by the end of this year.
In 2012, a similar unit was established in Portugal to detect suspected cases of fraud in the SNS. At that time, the Ministry of Health was headed by Paulo Macedo.
The Information Exploration Unit (UEI) “enabled the signaling and communication to the competent entities of 80 suspected cases, representing more than 82.5 million euros.”
These cases, combined with those “formally communicated,” reached a value that, in Paulo Macedo’s accounts, revealed in April 2013 during a parliamentary hearing, exceeded one hundred million euros.
