The new Global Reference Framework (GRF) of the National Health Service predicts that family doctor coverage will remain stagnant at 85.3% of the Portuguese population. This means approximately 15% of Portuguese citizens will continue without access to a family doctor until 2028.
This SNS document establishes the goals and guidelines for the public health system within the defined timeframe. The indicated stagnation represents a significant challenge for patients' accessibility to primary healthcare services.
The situation directly affects hundreds of thousands of citizens who do not have an assigned family doctor, which may hinder continuous health monitoring and overload other SNS services, such as hospital emergency rooms.
The GRF emerges as a planning instrument that, despite identifying this gap in coverage, does not anticipate substantial improvements in the proportion of Portuguese people with a family doctor in the coming years.
