Lisbon, November 21, 2025 (Lusa) — Hospital administrators argue that the funding for these facilities needs to be reconsidered to prevent deterring expensive therapeutic innovations, as the per capita calculation is always based on outdated values.
“The state is now calculating how much it will give hospitals in 2026, using costs from two or three years ago. However, next year will see the introduction of numerous new drugs that are much more expensive than those currently being purchased,” explained the president of the Portuguese Association of Hospital Administrators (APAH).
Xavier Barreto highlighted the discrepancy in these values and advocated for a reconsideration of this funding, noting that there are countries with specific funds to pay for innovative medications.
“There are countries that pay for innovative drugs outside the capita [payment per patient attended within the hospital’s geographical area],” said the official, explaining that this situation occurs in university hospitals, which are more complex and end up treating patients not only from within their area of residence but from across the country, resulting in losses.
He stated that hospitals do not stop treating patients with the existing drugs due to losses and added: “They end up incurring debt, purchasing medications and owing the industry, and then at the end of the year, as is happening now, the state injects hundreds of millions of euros to pay the debt.”
“This also doesn’t make much sense because this debt incurs financial costs,” added the official, explaining: “The industry, when it has debt but urgently needs money, seeks financing from banks, and these financings have costs that will eventually impact the price later on.”
Therefore, he advocates for adjustments in hospital funding to ensure they can continue to afford the annual innovations.
He recalled that hospital funding should work with incentives, emphasizing: “If we tell institutions to buy drugs that we will then cover the cost for, there is no incentive for efficiency.”
To reconsider this funding approach, he argued that consideration should be given to the drugs awaiting approval by Infarmed, analyzing their likely costs in the following year and the number of patients who will need treatment with these innovative drugs.
“With this, we can already estimate the impact on our finances and keep this in mind for next year’s funding,” he stated, explaining: “We would maintain this in the logic of capita, so hospitals would still need to be efficient to avoid losses, but despite everything, the imbalance would be mitigated with this idea of already considering the innovative drugs scheduled for the next year.”
Besides hospital funding, he noted that during the conference, which includes the presentation of the National Index of Access to Hospital Medication, being released today, the 10% cut the Government seeks to impose on goods and services in the healthcare sector will be a topic “hovering” in the debate.
