Sintra, Lisbon, July 14, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's prime minister argued on Monday that the "quality of the response" of the country's national health service (SNS) is noted daily, considering that today there are "fewer problems" than when he took office, and said that for every accident and emergency department that closes, there are several that are open.

"Every day we are confronted with several incidents, and often the reports of these incidents do not coincide exactly with the objective and concrete terms in which they occurred, but when we are confronted with several incidents every day concerning the functioning of the National Health Service [SNS], we forget that on those same days there are hundreds or even thousands of other episodes where the people involved and their families have ended their personal crises and events, often with tragic outcomes, greeting the health professionals, praising the efficiency of the SNS, saying 'I have nothing to complain about, I am here to thank this professional, this assistant, this nurse or this doctor for their care'," said Luís Montenegro.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the new Sintra Hospital, which was attended by the Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, the Prime Minister said that "every day there are thousands of disclosures from Portuguese men and women highlighting the quality of the response of the National Health Service", but "every day" it seems that the country is faced with "total incapacity" and argued that "the response capacity is not diminishing".

"Every day, the SNS treats thousands and thousands of citizens, it does so with quality, it does so efficiently, it does so with humanism, with humanity, it does so with the recognition of the patients themselves and their families. And we often express our great appreciation to health professionals and forget that when some news stories take on a certain dimension, they are also offensive to the professionals behind them," he argued.

Luís Montenegro considered that the problems in health "are unfortunately classic, they have been around for many years," but he also wanted to "recognise what is being done."

"We have problems today in accident and emergency departments, yes we do, but today we have fewer problems than we had a year ago. And perhaps a year ago we already had fewer problems than we had two years before. And when we have problems today in five or six accident and emergency departments, we sometimes forget that we have 160 or 170 accident and emergency departments operating at the same time as those four or five that have problems," he said.

The prime minister refused to allow his words to be seen as "minimising" the problems of the SNS, and stated that "every case is important", pointing out that just one case in which there is "a problem in the response or a delay in the response, or an inability to promote the response" is enough to merit the concern and "full attention" of the Government.

FM/AYLS // AYLS

Lusa