page_title: Healthcare in Portugal
section_title: Public hospitals
hierarchical_section_title: Healthcare in Portugal / Hospitals / Public hospitals
caption_attribution_description: Português: Hospital de São Teotónio, Viseu, Portugal Français&#160;: Hôpital de São Teotónio, Viseu, Portugal
context_page_description: Healthcare in Portugal is provided through three coexisting systems: the National Health Service, special social health insurance schemes for certain professions and voluntary private health insurance. The SNS provides universal coverage, although in 2012 measures were implemented to ensure the sustainability of the service by the introduction of user fees to be paid for at the end of treatments. In addition, about 25% of the population is covered by the health subsystems, 10% by private insurance schemes and another 7% by mutual funds. The Ministry of Health is responsible for developing health policy as well as managing the SNS. The Health Regulatory Entity is the public independent entity responsible for the regulation of the activity of all the public, private and social healthcare providers. In 2019 the government proposes to scrap all fees, which constitute about 2 percent of the NHS's budget, apart from some hospital emergencies.
context_section_description: The public hospitals are part of the National Health Service (SNS) or of the regional health services (SRS) of the Portuguese Atlantic islands.
  Although some hospitals continue to constitute themselves separate administrative hospital establishments, most of the hospital units are now administratively grouped in hospital super-establishments designated "hospital centers" (centros hospitalares). A next phase of hospital administration is being implemented, with the creation of comprehensive health mega-establishments designated "local health units" (unidades de saúde local, ULS). The ULS group not only the hospitals but also the health centers located in the same city or region, integrating the providing of both primary and secondary healthcare in a single administrative unit. Most of the public hospital establishments constitute State-owned enterprises (entidades públicas empresariais, EPE). However, some public hospitals are managed by private entities as public-private partnerships (PPP).
  In terms of service, the SNS hospitals, hospital centers and ULS are either classified as group I, II, III or IV (this being subdivided in the IV-a, IV-b and IV-c groups): 
  Group I are hospital establishments with an area of direct influence of 75 000 to 500 000 inhabitants, providing the medical and chirurgical valences of internal medicine, neurology, medical pediatrics, psychiatry, general surgery, orthopedics, anesthesiology, radiology, clinical pathology, hemotherapy and rehabilitation medicine. Group I hospitals can also provide some additional valences like ophthalmology and cardiology, but never provide the valences of medical genetics, allergology, pediatric cardiology, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, maxillofacial surgery, pediatric surgery and neuroradiology;
  Group II hospitals provide the group I valences in their own area of direct influence and also provide the medical and chirurgical valences of ophthalmology, pneumology, cardiology, rheumatology, gastroenterology, nephrology, clinical hematology, infectiology, medical oncology, neonatology, allergology, gynecology-obstetrics, dermatology-venereology, otorhinolaryngology, urology, vascular surgery, neurosurgery, pathological anatomy, nuclear medicine and neuroradiology in an indirect area of influence. Group II hospitals can also have additional valences, except those of clinical pharmacology, medical genetics, pediatric cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery and pediatric surgery;
  Group III are hospitals that provide all medical and chirurgical specialties in both direct and indirect areas of influence. The providing of some highly specialized valences like medical genetics, pediatric cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery and pediatric surgery is reserved to group III hospitals;
  Group IV hospitals are those specialized in the areas of oncology (group IV-a), rehabilitation medicine (group IV-b) and psychiatry and mental health (group IV-c).
  Below, is the list of the Portuguese public hospitals establishments, divided by the health regions of the SNS (North, Center, Lisbon and Tagus Valley (LVT), Alentejo and the Algarve), the Autonomous Region of the Azores (SRS of Azores) and the Autonomous Region of Madeira (SRS of Madeira):
caption: Hospital of São Teotónio, Viseu.
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