Portugal’s Maternity ER Closures Leave Expectant Expats Scrambling This Weekend

Lisbon’s maternity wards are entering yet another delicate stretch. Between today and the end of the coming weekend, multiple public hospitals will have their obstetrics and gynaecology emergency rooms partially or totally offline, forcing pregnant women to drive farther, phone first, or seek private care. Health officials insist there is always at least one facility open in every region, yet the map is shrinking and the rules shift by the hour.

What’s closed and when?

The most up-to-date roster shows nine hospitals—including Garcia de Orta in Almada, São Bernardo in Setúbal, Infante D. Pedro in Aveiro and Vila Franca de Xira—with their specialist urgência units shuttered at various times through Sunday. Some, such as Caldas da Rainha and the Barreiro‐Montijo complex, only accept arrivals pre-screened by SNS24 or routed by INEM ambulances after 20:00. A handful of northern sites, among them Braga and Leiria, are operating a stop-start schedule that can change at four hours’ notice. Because the roster is fluid, the Directorate-General of Health advises dialling the nation-wide 808 24 24 24 hotline before setting out.

Why the summer squeeze?

Every August the public Serviço Nacional de Saúde faces an exodus of holiday-bound staff, but 2025 has exposed a deeper fault line: the chronic shortage of obstetricians. Union leaders from FNAM and SIM say rosters are being held together by a patchwork of freelance tarefeiros who are unwilling to extend shifts without better pay. When even a few specialists request leave, entire rotas collapse. Officials counter that fewer wards are dark than in 2024, yet the bastonário da Ordem dos Médicos calls that claim “statistical juggling,” noting that three districts now rely on only one round-the-clock maternity A&E.

How this hits foreign families

For expats who assumed EU healthcare coverage guaranteed easy access, the closures can feel alarming. In metropolitan Lisbon it may mean a 40-minute detour across the 25 de Abril Bridge to Hospital de Santa Maria. In the Centro region, a woman in active labour could face a 70 km ride from Aveiro to Coimbra. Language also factors in: while most triage nurses speak English, signage is almost exclusively in Portuguese and private taxis may refuse emergency trips. Families with international health insurance might consider the CUF and Lusíadas networks, whose maternity units remain open 24/7 and generally provide English-speaking staff, though co-payments can run €200-€600 per visit.

Your action plan before heading to A&E

First, keep the SNS24 hotline saved on your phone; operators can check live capacity and, if needed, book an appointment in the nearest open ward. Second, ask your obstetrician for a written plano de parto that names an alternative hospital. Third, store digital copies of prenatal records on your device—many expats discover too late that paper files are not shared automatically across Portuguese hospitals. Finally, verify your residence permit or EHIC/GHIC status; frontline clerks will request one of these before treatment, even in an emergency.

The political and professional tug-of-war

Behind the scenes the Health Ministry is negotiating a temporary mobility scheme that would let specialists commute between hospitals with a daily €150 bonus. Unions insist any relocation must be voluntary and accompanied by concrete steps to hire at least 120 new obstetricians by year-end. Parliament’s opposition parties accuse the government of relying on “summer band-aids” instead of implementing the 2022 expert report that recommended concentrating births in eight high-volume centres and converting smaller units into antenatal clinics. Meanwhile, local user committees are staging nightly candlelight vigils—tonight’s protest in Barreiro aims to “defend the right to give birth close to home.”

Looking ahead

The current closures are scheduled to ease on Monday, but insiders expect a similar pattern to return during the Christmas holidays unless permanent staffing deals are struck. A task-force report due in September will outline whether Portugal should copy Spain’s model of region-wide on-call pools or invest in fast-track training grants for young doctors. For now, the safest strategy for expatriate parents-to-be is vigilance: confirm your hospital’s status, map a Plan B, and remember that in Portugal the emergency helpline 112 will prioritise labour-related calls regardless of nationality.