Portugal’s SNS 24 Fields 307,000 Winter Calls, Slashes Waits to Two Minutes

The winter respiratory season has pushed Portugal's medical helpline SNS 24 to field almost 307 000 calls in the first 17 days of December—a 17 % surge on last year. Behind the phones, an army of 3 701 clinicians, upgraded pay scales and new AI-driven tools are being marshalled to keep wait times close to the 2-minute mark for most users, even as flu and RSV tear through classrooms and offices up and down the country.

Quick takeaways

• 307 000 calls handled between 1 and 17 December

• 55 % of contacts linked to acute respiratory symptoms

• Peak demand hit the days after the 2 & 9 December holidays

• Average wait: 10 minutes, but 65 % answered inside 2 minutes

• 2 400 new hires and AI triage form the backbone of the winter plan

Winter spike overwhelms the line

Hospitals were not the first to feel the seasonal squeeze; it started with the headsets. On 2 December, the helpline logged its biggest single-day load since the pandemic, and volumes stayed high after the 9 December public holiday and again on the following Monday. By mid-month, the tally already matched an entire pre-pandemic winter, signalling just how aggressive this year’s viral wave has become. Operators say the rhythm rarely dipped below one call every three seconds, a pace that would have paralysed the older SNS 24 infrastructure.

Respiratory viruses call the shots

The Direção-Geral da Saúde confirms that influenza activity is running well above the five-year average, with bronchiolitis and RSV shadowing the flu curve. These pathogens account for more than half of the inquiries routed through the helpline’s respiratory algorithm. Paediatricians report overflowing clinics, while family doctors in the interior describe a wall of coughing patients pushing routine consultations into late evenings. Epidemiologists warn the spike may still be climbing, as mobility around the Christmas period traditionally seeds fresh micro-outbreaks.

A ten-minute wait that often feels shorter

Official dashboards peg the mean hold time at 10 minutes, yet two-thirds of users were greeted in under 120 seconds thanks to real-time load balancing. The secret, insiders say, lies in a newly deployed call-deflection matrix: callers reporting mild fever receive a recorded invitation to use the SNS 24 app for a quick check-list. That simple nudge skimmed roughly 26 000 interactions off the phone queue in just over two weeks, lightening the human workload during crunch hours around dinner time.

From phone to care: where patients go

Once the nurse finishes the digital protocol, the path forks. Almost 46 % are booked straight into primary-care appointments—about 56 000 slots so far in December—while 39,8 % are sent to hospital emergency departments. A slimmer 4,7 % require an urgent hand-off to INEM ambulances, and 9,6 % are steered toward self-care with safety-net instructions. Health-service managers argue the split proves the line is “a gatekeeper, not a bottleneck,” though critics note that some primary-care centres lack the spare capacity promised on the call.

People behind the headset

To stop burnout, the government authorised the recruitment of 2 400 extra clinicians in 2025, lifting the pool to 3 701 operators—exceeding even the pandemic peak. Roughly 85 % are trained nurses, flanked by doctors, pharmacists and psychologists. Pay packets have risen 30 % since March 2024, a move officials say reduced churn and attracted seasoned staff from private hotlines. An additional 600 recruits are finishing onboarding this month under the Plano para a Resposta Sazonal em Saúde – Módulo Inverno 2024/2025.

Digital upgrade on the horizon

Beyond manpower, the helpline is banking on algorithms. A pilot AI symptom checker—focused narrowly on cough, fever and breathlessness—went live in January and already shoulders 23 % of all respiratory triage. Engineers are also testing a call-back engine that promises to ring users once an agent frees up, sparing them the background-music purgatory. Taken together, these tools are expected to lift annual capacity to around 7 million calls, dwarfing the original 2,2 million target set when the current contract was penned.

Lessons from Europe

Public health hotlines across Europe mirror Portugal’s scramble: NHS 111 in England doubled nurse staffing last winter, while France’s SOS Médécins integrated video calls to unclog switchboards. Analysts say three principles emerge—flexibility, digital triage and clear routing. Portugal’s early adoption of an algorithmic front door puts it ahead of several neighbours, yet interoperability with local health-centre IT systems remains patchy, sometimes delaying the very appointments the line just booked.

What citizens can do now

Health officials urge residents to download the SNS 24 app, keep thermometers and paracetamol at hand, and—above all—“phone first, travel later.” With clinic schedules tightening ahead of the holidays, a two-minute call may still be the quickest path to professional advice. And for the many who inevitably spend the season juggling sniffles and family meals, knowing exactly where to turn could be the difference between a quiet recovery at home and a long wait under fluorescent lights in an overcrowded ER.