The previous government bequeathed to the new executive nearly 300,000 fewer people registered in health centers, as a result of the liquidation of files that began in 2023. In March, 10.333 million people were registered in primary health care, that is, 289,000 fewer people than in June 2023., when the number of users reached a record high in mainland Portugal, if we are to believe the data from the Transparency Portal of the National Health Service (SNS).
Although controversial, the process of cleaning up the central database and the National Register of Users (RNU), and updating health center lists, has proceeded more quickly since the beginning of this year, and the result in March was practically identical to estimates put forward by former Ministry of Health officials – who estimated that it would There are about 300,000 people who need to be removed from the files because they no longer reside in the country or are not registered properly, due to duplication or other reasons.
These are registrars who can fill vacancies in health centers, at a time when the number of residents who do not have a designated family doctor has increased significantly, and despite fluctuations – because every month there are new registrars and doctors leaving due to retirement – there is still a lot of growth. . In March, there were 1.539 million people without a designated family doctor – 185,000 fewer than in December.
The cleaning of files began two months after the RNU registration rules were changed, by order, in February 2023, which states that users can keep their registration active (citizen with Portuguese nationality residing in Portugal or foreign nationality residing here permanently), temporary (if not They have complete information, they have 90 days to update the information) and are inactive.
Meanwhile, centrally, over the past year, registrants who had not had any kind of contact with the NHS for more than five years were removed, and people who did not have complete data in the health center files were contacted via SMS. Later, this task began to be carried out by primary health care units, and the deadline for its completion was postponed successively, until the process ended up being suspended and postponed “to a date to be determined in due course,” even in the recent period. days of the previous government.
Shortly after taking office, former Minister of Health Manuel Pizarro announced that the list of users registered in health centers would have to be updated because the gap regarding the number of residents in mainland Portugal was large (which in 2021 was not the case). up to ten million).
Manuel Pizarro stressed that the cleansing process must be carried out with caution so as not to affect the rights of citizens. He has always maintained this guarantee, even when the ongoing process sparked controversy at the end of last year, after the vice president of the National Association of Family Health Units, Nelson Magalhaes, said that the new rules compromise the rights of migrants – who will have to pay whenever they use social networking services and lose their right. Get a family doctor, if they have one.
Summoned to the Parliament's Health Committee by the Department of Public Security and Chiga, Manuel Pizarro confirmed that this was out of the question, but doubts about updating the files persist. Nelson Magalhães says the association has not received any response to the letter requesting clarification and reiterating that it is necessary to clarify the situation.
Antônio Luz Pereira, vice president of the Portuguese Society of General and Family Medicine, fears that users who simply lack documentation are registered as inactive, a problem that, he stresses, mainly affects migrants. “If they do not have a document, they are registered as inactive. They continue treatment in case of severe illness, but they are not counted in the statistics.”
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