Healthcare
Health Minister announces centralized emergency services in Lisbon and plans to bill non-resident foreigners
The Minister of Health announced the consolidation of orthopedics and trauma emergency services in the Lisbon and Tagus Valley region to improve patient routing. Additionally, the government is creating a working group to study charging non-resident foreigners for SNS health care and is preparing a decree to take control of medical residency quotas from the Ordem dos Médicos, aiming to increase annual openings to 2,400.
Why it mattersIf you are a non-resident foreign national, the government is actively studying a system to charge you for SNS care; meanwhile, if you rely on emergency services in the Lisbon area, expect further consolidations of departments as the government reorganizes hospital access.
