Discharged Patients Stranded in Portugal’s Hospitals as Filipe Calls for 90 Beds

Recent comments from presidential hopeful António Filipe have once again put Portugal’s fragile continuing-care network in the spotlight, accusing the Health Minister of offering "promises without solutions" while hospitals buckle under the weight of so-called internamentos sociais—patients medically fit to leave yet stranded for weeks because no care home or community team can take them.

Why the Continuing-Care Gap Hurts Everyone

Nearly 288 M€ are drained from the public purse every year by hospital stays that should have ended long before. The shortage of RNCCI beds, combined with sparse home-care teams, forces acute wards to act as long-term shelters. Beyond the financial hit, family doctors warn that waiting lists for surgery and oncology lengthen whenever ward space is blocked by social admissions. For people settled in Portugal—whether born here or newly arrived—this translates into longer A&E delays, overworked staff and, occasionally, the gloomy sight of ambulances queuing outside urban hospitals.

Filipe’s Prescription: More Than a Ministerial Shake-Up

Far from calling for a simple cabinet reshuffle, Filipe says the country needs a “massive” capacity jump:

• 90 new palliative-care beds a year until the European benchmark is reached

• Roll-out of 16 community palliative teams annually, doubling today’s coverage in three years

• Full integration of the Rede Nacional de Cuidados Paliativos into the mainstream SNS budget rather than the charitable top-ups that currently keep many units afloat

In Parliament, the Communist Party deputy co-signed an amendment tying these ideas to the 2025 State Budget; on the campaign trail he frames them as proof that the presidency can—and should—exercise its veto power over legislation that starves the health system.

What the Government Says It Is Doing

The ministry counters that 2025 already brought an 18.9 % tariff rise for continuing-care providers, new rules allowing units to order lab tests directly, and a pilot that places ECCI mobile teams inside six Local Health Units. Private capital is meanwhile funding Portugal’s largest future UCCI in Maia, a 330-bed facility set to open next summer. Yet industry data show 417 beds have disappeared nationwide over the past five years, a figure critics blame on under-indexing for inflation and energy costs.

Voices From the Front Line

The National Nurses’ Union backs Filipe’s view that staffing levels—and morale—are crumbling. The Health Regulator (ERS) separately flagged “serious access failures” in December, citing call-centre data that reveal patients hanging on the line for hours to secure basic appointments. On financing, the Public Finance Council predicts that without fresh revenue the SNS will breach its payroll ceiling by mid-2026, squeezing funds for any real expansion of residential care.

Should Residents in Portugal Brace for More Disruption?

While no one expects wards to collapse overnight, every delayed discharge hampers the system’s ability to treat stroke, cancer and trauma cases promptly. Urban dwellers may feel the pinch through longer surgical queues; rural families fear the loss of local maternity and rehabilitation units. Expats relying on private insurance are not immune either: insurers generally use the same overcrowded hospital network for serious procedures.

Key Numbers to Keep in Mind

• 417 RNCCI beds closed since 2021, 110 of them in the last quarter of 2025

• Government funding per patient night: +18.9 % in 2025, still below cost, providers say

• Estimated annual cost of social admissions: 288 M€

• PRR target: 5 000 new continuing-care beds by 2026; progress so far hovers below 35 %

• Proposed Filipe plan: 90 extra palliative beds + 16 community teams every year

As campaign season intensifies, voters will soon decide whether Filipe’s tough talk—and the Ministry’s promises—translate into the extra beds and staff the country so desperately needs.