The Government has outlined one of its key goals in the program delivered to the Assembly of the Republic, which aims to strengthen the Portuguese health system through transformative changes in its fundamental pillars: organization of care, human resources, and financing.
“In this context, the revision of the Health Framework Law and the approval of a Budget Law for the NHS are essential to ensure its sustainability,” states Luís Montenegro’s executive.
The current Health Framework Law, approved in 2019, led to a revision of the National Health Service (SNS) Statute published in 2022, clarifying the roles and relationships within Portugal’s health system and establishing a new entity — the SNS executive management.
The 2019 law reaffirmed the centrality of the SNS, “guided by the principles of universality, generality, near gratuitousness, and endowed with its own statute.”
Another measure in the Government’s Program is the restructuring of “SNS management through its reorganization based on Local Health Systems with the participation of public, private, and social entities.”
In the new mandate, the Government also plans to launch new public-private partnerships (PPP) for health units that “meet criteria to ensure better assistance response” in a model of private management of public services in the SNS.
To increase sector efficiency, the document advocates moving towards a model granting greater autonomy to public hospitals, including human resource management and investment planning, by exploring the flexibility of public procurement.
The executive aims to transform the Ministry of Health’s Shared Services (SPMS) into the National Digital Health Agency and develop a motivation plan for professionals.
To this end, the document includes engagement with professional orders and representative associations to retain medical staff, nurses, and other health professionals within the Portuguese healthcare system.
Establishing a Fraud Combat Unit in the SNS, “highlighting the need to ensure public funds are not misused, to the detriment of all citizens,” is another proposed measure.
The ministry also proposes defining a new set of incentives in the country’s most deprived areas to attract and retain health professionals, in collaboration with local municipalities.
Following the salary agreement with doctors, the Government aims to negotiate a revision of the medical career statute without reopening that process, as well as to implement the legal framework for the specialty nursing internship.
The Program of the XXV Constitutional Government, resulting from the May 18 elections won by the AD coalition (PSD/CDS), was submitted today to the Assembly of the Republic by the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Carlos Abreu Amorim.
The Government program was approved in the Council of Ministers on Thursday and will be discussed in the Assembly of the Republic on Tuesday and Wednesday.
