A meeting between Ana Paula Martins and representatives from the new association of doctors without a labor contract with the National Health Service (SNS) is scheduled for 10:30 AM in Lisbon.
These doctors, also known as freelance doctors, have formally created an association. Earlier this month, they expressed their intention to meet with the Ministry of Health to understand the changes approved by the Government regarding the regulation of service provision in the SNS.
“We requested a meeting with the Ministry of Health to evaluate the decree-law, discuss the situation, and try to understand the measures they plan to implement and provide our ground-level perspective on whether they are applicable,” stated the movement at the time.
The regulatory changes pertain to the service provision by doctors approved by the government at the end of October, aimed at regulating the amounts paid to these healthcare professionals and include provisions for incompatibility.
With the new regulation, the Government aims to minimize the pay gap between doctors contracted with the SNS and those working as service providers, mainly hired on a task basis by hospitals to cover emergency rooms.
Between January and August 2025, the SNS spent 162 million euros on freelance doctors, marking an increase of 25.7 million (19%) compared to the same period the previous year, according to data from the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS).
Doctors account for the majority of SNS’s service provision expenditure, which totaled 174.7 million euros over eight months.
Around a thousand doctors gathered in a WhatsApp group discussed the possibility of halting emergency services when the Government’s decree is published, but the newly created association has rejected such an initiative for now.
“It was long ago decided, as is normal, that any evaluation of the measures put forth in the alleged new decree-law would only occur once the decree-law is officially known,” it noted.
The Medical Association intends to meet with freelance doctors next week to hear their grievances and perspectives, announced the chairman on Wednesday.
