Poll Shows 90% Losing Faith in Portugal's Public Healthcare System

Most people in Portugal no longer ask if the Serviço Nacional de Saúde can cope; they wonder how much farther it can slide before breaking altogether. A new nationwide poll by the Observatório da Sociedade Portuguesa finds that a stunning 89.6 % of respondents believe the quality of public healthcare has deteriorated over the past year, and many are already adjusting their lives to that reality. The study, released this week, sits atop a pile of earlier surveys pointing in the same direction and forces a sober question: is 2025 the moment when Portugal’s most cherished social programme loses the country’s confidence?

A Snapshot of Growing Discontent

The fresh poll, carried out between 10 and 18 July with 1,134 adults aged 20-69, paints a bleak emotional map. 85.1 % fear the system will let them down should they fall ill; 84.6 % worry the weakening service could drag down their quality of life. Yet, in a twist typical of Portuguese pragmatism, 57.3 % still praise doctors, nurses and auxiliary staff, separating frontline dedication from systemic malaise. That nuanced view echoes findings from the STADA Health Report 2024, which measured national satisfaction at 49 %—seven points below the European average.

Waiting Times: The Pain Point Everyone Feels

Ask anyone in a Lisbon emergency department on a winter night and you will hear the same complaint: tempo de espera. Official data back up the anecdotes. By the end of 2024, more than 902,000 people were waiting for a first hospital consultation, with 55 % already beyond the legal maximum response time. Cardiologists faced the worst backlog—26,039 patients in queue, 85.9 % over time limits. Phone lines are no refuge; in the first nine months of 2025, 1.457 M calls to SNS 24 went unanswered, a jaw-dropping 941 % jump year-on-year.

Shortage of Hands Behind the Stethoscope

The waiting lists grow because the workforce cannot. Despite crossing the milestone of 154 K employees in 2025, the health service still lacks specialists where and when they are needed. 1.5 M citizens remain without a family doctor, most of them in Lisboa e Vale do Tejo. Hospitals rely on costly agency staff while chronic absenteeism—equivalent to 17,500 full-time posts in 2023—hollows out rosters. The Government did authorise the hiring of 350 permanent emergency physicians this summer, but unions argue that number barely covers scheduled retirements.

Money Troubles and Broken Thermometers

If the SNS were a patient, its financial chart would show persistent fever. Last year the network posted a €1.38 B deficit, almost doubling 2023’s shortfall. Debt to suppliers ballooned to €1.4 B, forcing some hospitals to ration reagents and postpone non-urgent imaging. Even with a promised 9 % funding bump in the 2025 budget, analysts fear inflation and energy costs will swallow gains. A separate red flag: only 46 % of the €774 M investment envelope approved for 2024 was actually spent, leaving wards with outdated monitors and surgeons with decades-old operating theatres.

Government’s Prescription: Fix or Placebo?

The Ministry of Health touts a multi-pronged rescue plan that mixes PRR cash—€1.383 B over three years— with bricks-and-mortar projects like the long-delayed Hospital de Lisboa Oriental. Digital tools also headline the agenda: the new SINACC platform should rationalise surgical scheduling by December 2025, and Portugal has signed on to EUVAC, a Europe-wide digital vaccination card. Meanwhile, outsourcing family-doctor coverage to private or social-sector clinics is due to launch in Lisbon, Leiria and Algarve, theoretically covering 540 K users by year-end. Critics applaud the ambition but wonder whether structural understaffing will nullify the upgrades.

Why This Matters for Every Household

Portugal’s health service has long been a social glue—igualdade no acesso is more than a slogan; it is part of the post-1974 identity. When 9 in 10 citizens say the system is regressing, the alarm extends beyond hospital corridors into business productivity, demographic resilience and even tourism confidence. Families delaying check-ups due to queues risk later, costlier complications. Employers see absenteeism rise. And expats choosing between Lisbon and Valencia factor in healthcare reliability. The country now faces an inflection point: invest, reform and rebuild trust, or watch an institution that once symbolised modern Portugal become its most visible vulnerability.