Sintra’s New Public Hospital Starts Taking Patients

Foreign residents who call Lisbon’s north-western suburbs home finally have a modern public hospital within their own postcode. Sintra’s new 10,500-square-metre facility is opening its doors in stages this week, adding extra beds, operating theatres and a round-the-clock basic emergency department for the first time. The move is designed to take the strain off the chronically over-crowded Hospital Professor Doutor Fernando Fonseca (often shortened to Amadora-Sintra), which until now has been the only major NHS unit for more than half a million people.

Why another hospital was needed in the first place

Amadora and Sintra have grown into one of the densest urban pockets in Portugal, fed by daily commuters heading into Lisbon and a steady stream of foreigners attracted by lower rents than in the capital. The original Amadora-Sintra hospital was built for roughly 350,000 users but now serves closer to 700,000, leading to record waiting times and corridor beds. Local mayors have lobbied for two decades for a second unit; construction in Casal da Cavaleira, Algueirão-Mem Martins, finally began in 2021 after the municipality agreed to foot most of the bill.

A carefully sequenced roll-out

Health authorities insist on opening each wing only once staff, labs and IT links are fully tested. Out-patient consultations began on Friday, 11 July, the 24-hour basic emergency department followed at 08:00 on Saturday, and by Monday the first surgical lists and 60 acute-care beds are due to go live. This phased approach, officials say, guards against the chaos that sometimes accompanies big-bang openings and allows clinicians to adapt patient circuits in real time.

What services will be available and when

In its first year, the hospital is expected to handle 185,000 consultations, 64,000 emergency episodes and 16,000 surgeries, most of them day cases. Two theatres, a convalescence ward, 34 specialist consultation rooms, a mental-health hub and a full suite of diagnostics—including radiology, pathology and ECG—are already in place. A second operating block is scheduled to follow once recruitment hits full strength.

Staffing the new unit

Roughly 600 health professionals are being hired, with 200 already on site for the opening weekend. An expedited recruitment drive is under way for key specialties such as anaesthesiology, cardiology, internal medicine, paediatrics and psychiatry, reflecting the area’s young family profile and high prevalence of chronic disease. Many nurses and technicians have transferred from Amadora-Sintra, where their departure is offset by the lighter patient load.

Relief for Amadora-Sintra and what it means for expats

By funnelling non-urgent cases—known locally as green and blue triage codes—away from Amadora-Sintra, the new hospital should shorten waiting times for life-threatening emergencies and complex surgery across the region. Foreign residents who previously faced multi-hour queues or cross-city taxi rides can now reach a modern ER in 10–15 minutes from most Sintra parishes, often serviced by the same urban bus lines that feed the train stations. Specialists also expect day-surgery slots for orthopaedics and ophthalmology, procedures popular with older expatriates, to become more accessible.

How to access care

For emergency attention patients must still phone SNS 24 on 808 24 24 24 for triage; the call centre will direct suitable cases to the new basic emergency department, while serious trauma and cardiac arrests continue to be routed to Amadora-Sintra or Santa Maria in Lisbon. Out-patient appointments are booked through family doctors or the online SNS portal; keep your Número de Utente handy because the hospital’s digital kiosks require it. English-speaking volunteers from the local parish council are planning weekly drop-in sessions to help newcomers navigate registration.

The money behind the project

The final price tag stands at just over €81 million—€63.8 million paid by Sintra City Hall for bricks and mortar and about €17 million supplied by the Health Ministry for equipment. Running costs will be absorbed by the public Amadora/Sintra Local Health Unit, dashing earlier speculation that a private-sector partnership might be brought in. National recovery-fund cash has also been earmarked for future tech upgrades, including a hybrid operating theatre.

What happens next

Management hopes to declare the hospital fully operational before the autumn flu surge. If the timeline holds, Sintra will become the first Portuguese municipality in decades to fund, build and equip a state-owned general hospital from scratch, a model other fast-growing suburbs are already studying. Until then, residents are being asked to respect the phased calendar and to keep using Amadora-Sintra for major emergencies while staff fine-tune the new corridors.