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Over 160,000 patients registered without a family doctor

New SNS rules reveal that 160,000 patients lack access to a family doctor due to eligibility criteria.

29 August 2026Tagblick Newsdesk

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Archive photo: Over 160,000 patients registered without a family doctor — Archive photoPhoto: Bextrel · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Currently, more than 160,000 patients registered at health centers in Portugal have no right to a family doctor. This situation arises from new rules in the National Utilization Regulation (RNU), which change the eligibility calculation criteria for patients.

The patients in question are deemed "non-eligible" because they reside outside the country or have not contacted the National Health Service (SNS) in the last five years. These conditions directly impact the SNS statistics.

In addition to this issue, the SNS currently has over one million patients waiting to be assigned a family doctor. This number reflects the challenges many citizens face in accessing primary care, a crucial element of the healthcare system.

Available data indicates that despite the high number of patients without a family doctor, the SNS continues to work on solutions that allow for the assignment of doctors to all eligible patients.

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