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Constantino Sakellarides. After 47 years, "it is fair to say that the NHS is in palliative care"
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Constantino Sakellarides. After 47 years, "it is fair to say that the NHS is in palliative care"

SAPO15 September 2026 at 08:51

On September 15, 1979, the decree-law of then Minister of Social Affairs, António Arnaut, created the National Health Service, now completing 47 years of existence. To mark this date, Diário de Notícias spoke with Constantino Sakellarides, a retired full professor from the National School of Public Health.

Constantino Sakellarides was one of the mentors of the NHS reform in the 1990s. The specialist considers the current situation of the public health system very worrying and warned that public finances are also responsible for the degradation of services.

According to Sakellarides, after these 47 years, it is fair to say that the NHS is in palliative care. This statement comes in the context of an anniversary marking almost five decades of the Portuguese health service's existence.

Why this matters

Readers are directly affected by the state of the NHS, which is the Portuguese public health system. The warning from one of its main architects about the worsening situation and the responsibility of public finances indicates that access to public health may be increasingly compromised, which represents a concrete concern for all citizens who depend on this service.

About this summary

This is our short summary of a report published by SAPO on 15 September 2026 at 08:51; the full text stays with the publisher. In our feed it sits under Politics. We currently carry 30146 items in that section.

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