New Health Centers Coming to Algarve
A new decree published today in the Diário da República regulates the applications for the establishment of new health centers managed by the social and private sectors. Five centers are planned for the Algarve region.
These health centers will be created in areas where the coverage rate of individuals without a family doctor has been below the national average for over a year. This is one of the requirements outlined in the newly published decree which also establishes the criteria for the creation of the new Family Health Units (USF-C), as well as their subsequent monitoring.
According to the latest data from the National Health Service's transparency portal, 1,566,436 users in mainland Portugal did not have a family doctor as of October this year.
The decree, signed by the Secretary of State for Health Management, Cristina Vaz Tomé, indicates that the Executive Board of the National Health Service (DE-SNS) is responsible for annually identifying the need for creating these USF-C, which also require a minimum of 4,000 individuals without a family doctor.
Once these two requirements are verified, DE-SNS will present a proposal for the creation of USF-C to the Ministries of Finance and Health. These USF-C are defined as a complementary model of primary health care, consisting of teams voluntarily made up of doctors, nurses, and technical assistants who respond with greater functional and technical autonomy to the health needs of the population.
In September, the government approved a decree-law creating health centers managed by the private and social sectors. Initially, 20 centers are planned in regions with the most significant shortage of family doctors, including 10 in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo, five in Leiria, and five in Algarve.
The establishment of USF-C is part of the emergency and transformation plan for health approved by the government in May, which anticipated placing the first 20 units for tender by July, aiming for them to start operating before the end of the year.
With the application regulations published just a little over a month before the year's end, the Ministry of Health has indicated that they have received numerous expressions of interest in establishing these USF.
The plan also includes launching two more phases of public tender for implementing new USF in the Lisbon region in 2025, targeting 360,000 users alongside this year’s planned tender.
According to today's decree, the future USF-C must consist of an appropriate number of general and family medicine specialists and family health nursing specialists, as defined in the contract and commitment.
Moreover, healthcare professionals and partners or shareholders of the promoting entity must not have had any indefinite or fixed-term contractual relationship with the public health sector in the last three years.
The establishment of USF-C will be conducted through an open market procedure as per the Public Contracts Code or via contracts for healthcare provision, with applications required to be submitted electronically to the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS).
The decree also states that once established, monitoring of their activities will be the responsibility of the Local Health Unit that contracted them, with quarterly evaluations. The DE-SNS and ACSS will verify compliance with the contracted conditions annually, with penalties applicable for any non-compliance, and reports to be published on each entity’s website.
Transitionally for this year, ACSS will identify the needs for USF-C within 30 days following the decree's entry into force.
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