INCREASING ACCESS
The Ministry of Health seeks to combine innovation and technology with improving access to quality care to raise healthcare to another level.
BIOGRAPHY
Marta Temido, the current health minister, was previously the Deputy Director of the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and President of the Executive Board of the Administração Central do Sistema de Saúde, I.P. She holds a PhD in international health, health and development policies from the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a master’s in management and health economics from Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra. She also holds a post-graduate degree in hospital management from Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a law degree from the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra.How would you evaluate the implementation of the national healthcare scheme in Portugal?
Portugal has made significant progress in both reducing mortality rates and increasing life expectancy at birth in the last 40 years. The introduction of a universal immunization program and the expansion of healthcare services along with improvements in general living conditions have led to reductions in infant mortality rate and a steady increase in life expectancy. Today, Portugal is among the countries with the lowest infant and maternal mortality rates. Over the last 40 years, there was also a shift in the epidemiological features of the Portuguese population, with the increase of non-communicable diseases, namely cancers, circulatory diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, and mental and behavioral disorders. The Portuguese National Health Service (NHS) has contributed to better health status through solid health gains. Nevertheless, as a new era approaches, the challenges to be faced and addressed by the NHS are different and more complex than ever before. For the next 40 years, the NHS has to find innovative and efficient ways to continue to provide healthcare to the population.
How do you assess the synergies between public and private healthcare facilities?
In Portugal, the private sector always played a role in the provision of healthcare services in specific areas. The relationship between the public and private areas is of complementarity though also to some effect competitive; in fact, the Basic Law of 1990 envisaged a competitive relationship between both sectors. Traditionally, the private sector provides care in some of the most lucrative areas and where the public sector fails to provide full or timely coverage, as is the case of medical specialist appointments, elective surgery, and medical exams. In the last two decades, the provision of healthcare services by the private sector has shifted from small medical cabinets, geographically spread, and more abundant in urban areas to variable size, well-equipped, high-quality clinics, and small hospitals where medical specialists are concentrated and specialized, and medical exams are readily available. This happened alongside the increase in the percentage of the population covered by a voluntary health insurance, estimated to be 20% in 2014. There are great examples of the relationship between the private and public sectors in the provision of care, such as the dental voucher, where the government contracts with private providers for specific oral care screenings and treatments for vulnerable groups of the population, or the provision of specific services in community pharmacies that are privately owned and well spread throughout the country. These services are aligned with the national health priorities and programs, namely at the primary healthcare level. Despite the great examples and the existing relationship between the private and the public sectors, there is a need to better define the boundaries between the two sectors, increasing transparency and clarifying funding and stewardship roles.
How do you envision attracting investment into the medical equipment and pharmaceutical sectors?
The Ministry of Health is always focused on attracting innovation into the health system, responding to patients' needs, and training. We will maintain and encourage the adequate access of medicines and medical devices for citizens and professionals' safe and rational use of new health technologies, fighting waste, and contributing to the sustainability of the whole system. For example, we have successfully introduced policies for the introduction and stimulation of generic and biosimilar medicines, making them accessible to the population and at the same time improving citizens' access to therapeutic innovation. NHS also ensures the availability of the latest scientific and technological state-of-the-art medical devices and differentiated products that save lives or significantly improve the quality of life of patients. While improving the access to these innovative products, we have to ensure the health system's sustainability, improving the definition and uniformity of the products' characteristics, adjusting the acquisition processes to the effective needs of the institutions, and improving market surveillance and traceability, for example.
INCREASING ACCESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Focus: Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries
Making an Impact
Established in 1996, the Community of Portuguese Language Speaking Countries (CPLP) is a mechanism geared at linking and sharing the experience of Lusophone countries. Besides Portugal, this includes Brazil, Portugal, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
read articleFocus
Don’t Mind the Disruption
Having won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, Lisbon hosted the 2018 event. The relevance? Well, the contest began back in 1956 as a showcase not only of song, but of then-nascent live television broadcast technology. Today, Portugal is on the cutting edge of new technological developments.
read articleInterview
João Pedro Soeiro de Matos Fernandes , Minister , Environment and Energy Transition
The Ministry for the Environment and Energy Transition is focusing on decarbonizing the economy, valuing the territory and its habitats, and striving for a more circular use of the country's resources.
read articleInterview
António Braz Costa , General Manager, Portuguese Technological Centre for the Textile & Clothing Industries (CITEVE)
CITEVE has transformed the industry by promoting value addition, adopting the latest technologies, and ensuring the highest standards of environmental sustainability.
read articleFocus: New airport
Right Time to Seize Missed Opportunities
Portugal has seen its air traffic figures increase by as much as 80% in the last five years. As a result, its transportation infrastructure, and Lisbon's airport in particular, cannot cope with the rising numbers. A new airport project that will turn a military base into a commercial airport is now under discussion to bring much-needed relief to air traffic.
read articleInterview
Germano de Sousa , President, Grupo Germano de Sousa
Grupo Germano de Sousa's success can best be summed up by its understanding that science and medicine only really progress when technological development is combined with a deeper respect for human values and professional ethics.
read articleInterview
Isabel Capeloa Gil , Rector, Universidade Católica
Having pioneered the introduction of multiple subject areas to Portugal's tertiary education scene, Universidade Católica is aspiring to establish the country's first private medical school and introduce cutting-edge digital transformation.
read articleInterview
Carlos Guillén Gestoso , President, Escola Universitária de Ciências Empresariais, Saúde, Tecnologias e Engenharia & President, Atlantica University
Atlantica University differentiates through its company-university model and an MBA program in partnership with the University of California, Berkley, among other initiatives, to produce practical theoreticians.
read articleFocus: Public teaching staff
An Age-old Problem
Over a decade of austerity measures combined with an ageing population have seen the average age of the Portuguese public teaching staff progressively climb to one of the highest in the OECD. With frozen salaries, an extended retirement age, and precarious working conditions, today the sector faces one of its biggest challenge yet.
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Pedro Queiroz , General Manager, Federation of the Portuguese Agri-Food Industry (FIPA)
Portugal's economic recovery has seen its F&B sector emerge with annual turnovers of EUR16 billion, thanks to FIPA's undeterred focus on stable policies, excellent nutrition standards, and sustainability.
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