@TommyReine
Great information.
If I am staying in Portugal for only a few months, then I cannot register for the SNS number.
Can I still use the Public healthcare if I donât have a SNS.
Is the subsidized medicine available with prescription from a Private hospital, if I donât have a SNS number.
Thanks
Not true, you can register as long as you have a valid papers to be living in PT.
Yes you can but it wonât be for free.
Not possible, you are only entitled for a subsidy with an UTENTE number Public/Private hospital doesnât matter as the prescribing doctor uses SNS platform to prescribe using their Doctors ID which is protected cryptographically and issued by the state. The doctors can use the platform from wherever they are. I have gotten prescriptions from my private hospital doctor when she is on a holiday on a Caribbean islandâŠ
Thanks for the information! I wasnât aware that they can remove you from the public health system if you donât use it for a long time. That certainly isnât the case in the UK! They would be only too happy if someone doesnât need medical attention.
In my experience, if you donât appear at your local GP in the UK for something like 5 years they remove you from their register - so that theyâre not maintaining records of âinactiveâ patients. But you still exist on the UK NHS!
Iâm wondering if thatâs what @chinbawambi meant for Portugal as well?
I believe so. For example, a few years after leaving Portugal, my wife got an email from the health center where she was registered asking if she still wanted to be registered there.
Perhaps other centers donât give you the courtesy of sending an email, but just remove you? Not sure, but in either case itâs just the local registration weâre talking about.
SNS wouldât remove anyone from the healthcare center without a proper notification. This is done through the registered phone number with an SMS and the SNS application. Even if the healthcare center de-boards the Utente, one can still use the public healthcare system using the emergency walk-ins at any public hospitals.
New developments on this front? (bolding is theirs)
Portugal Resident, 8th January 2025
Since Christmas, the government has announced that Ă©migrĂ©s and resident foreigners on the lists of family doctors (mĂ©dicos de famĂlia) in Portugal will lose their ârightâ to this family doctor if they have not availed themselves of his or her services over the past five years.
On the face of it, it sounds âdrasticâ, but then the fact that these SNS âusersâ are not using the health service shows that removing the right to a âfamily doctorâ may make little difference to their lives â and it might benefit the well over a million citizens without a family doctor who appear to be among the majority clogging A&E departments on high days and holidays.
https://www.portugalresident.com/portugal-health-service-shake-up/
I read this too.
As I understand there is a shortage of GPâs.
I interpreted this to mean your name is removed from the register of your current GP if unused.
You retain the ability to rejoin, but in the meantime someone on the waiting list may have taken your place. Hence you will be without service until a space opens up or you can move GP if there is a vacancy elsewhere (or go private).
Happy to be corrected.
I donât even know if I have a GP.
Should I get one? I thought SNS was enough.
Unlikely to be using them thoughâŠ
You can check if you have one assigned by opening the SNS24 app, going to Patient Summary and looking under the Doctor heading. If you donât have a GP assigned itâll say sem mĂ©dico.
I donât know if thereâs a legal reason that you should have one. I donât have a state / SNS GP but I am registered at a local private GP. As I understand private GPâs can provide state & private prescriptions (with private having a larger range) so I havenât taken it any further.