There are approximately 160 thousand patients registered at health centers in Portugal who are not entitled to a family doctor. These people are considered "not eligible" because they live outside the country or because they have not contacted the National Health Service in the last five years, which means they are not counted in the family doctor assignment system.
The Ministry of Health implemented new rules through the National Patient Registry Regulation (RNU), which change the calculation basis for the assignment of family doctors. This change makes it possible to reduce the number of patients who appear without an assigned doctor in the official records.
The new rules aim to make the counting of patients who effectively use the Portuguese NHS more precise, excluding those who, although maintaining their registration, no longer reside in the country or have no need to resort to public health services for several years.
With this change, the government expects to present more realistic figures on family doctor coverage in Portugal, allowing for better planning of human and financial resources in the health sector.
