Looking back at the Portuguese crisis: what legacy for the Portuguese NHS?

• Autor(a) principal: Fronteira, Inês
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Simões, Jorge, Figueiredo Augusto, Gonçalo
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25761/anaisihmt.250

In 2011, Portugal signed a financial rescue plan that included a Memorandum of Understanding to reduce the deficit and the public debt, and contain the growth of public spending.  Health sector policies included changes in the financing of the NHS and public sub-systems, pharmaceutical market and pharmacies, prescription and monitoring of prescription, centralization of purchasing and public hiring, primary health care, hospital services and cross-sectional services. Five years have passed and most of the policies are still in force. However, the majority of them are still waiting for an assessment on their ability and suitability to solve structural problems of the NHS.  Despite the crisis, the different players, stakeholders and interests, it is common to all sectors of the Portuguese society that the constitutional right to health ought to be maintain through the NHS, thus guaranteeing universal health coverage. Nevertheless, the provision of care is to continue to be assured by the public, private and social sector and the challenge is to respond to the health needs while guaranteeing the quality and sustainability of the public provision of care, mainly through the NHS.