As reported by Diário de Notícias, these figures compare the situation on 14 July with the latest data from 24 August.

By late August, 10,807,867 people were registered with primary healthcare services, of whom 10,599,255 were considered eligible for a family doctor, and of these, 9,234,694 had been assigned one, while 1,364,561 remained without.

This represents an increase of 107,453 patients with a family doctor compared with July.

Meanwhile, 160,203 people were classified as ineligible for an assigned doctor, up from the previous figure.

Register rules

Under new rules for the National Patient Register (RNU), which came into effect on 4 July, duplicate records were removed, as well as records of those who have died and patients who no longer meet the criteria for having a family doctor assigned to them.

This includes Portuguese citizens living abroad, who retain their right to use the SNS despite no longer qualifying for an assigned family doctor under the revised criteria.

According to the RNU, the database contained around 19.3 million records on 24 August, highlighting the scale as an issue.

The Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) has described the review as necessary, while acknowledging that the register is continuously changing and that some cases will need to be corrected in cooperation with Local Health Units (ULS).

Recruitment measures

Nuno Jacinto, President of the Portuguese Association of General and Family Medicine (APMGF), said the revised figures could continue to improve as the registers are cleared, but argued that this should not be attributed to solving the lack of doctors.

He added that the number of people without a family doctor could fall further, but that more than one million patients would remain without one.

Regional coverage

The North had the highest level of family doctor coverage at 98 percent, followed by the Centre (95 percent), the Alentejo (83 percent) and the Algarve (80 percent).

Lisbon and the Tagus Valley remained the region with the lowest coverage at 74 percent, as 1,009,185 were without a family doctor.

However, the region recorded the largest increase in patients assigned a doctor during the period, with an additional 65,422 people, equivalent to a 2.4 percent rise.

ACSS says the figures can help identify areas with the greatest needs and inform decisions over the recruitment and distribution of general and family medicine doctors.

Implementation review

Raquel Souto, Coordinator of the Federation of Doctors’ Unions (Fnam) primary care working group and director of a Family Health Unit in the Porto district, said updating the register was necessary but questioned how it had been carried out.

She reported cases in which children were placed in different household records and healthcare units from their parents after the system automatically identified them as eligible for a family doctor.

There have also been reports of patients losing access to medicine subsidies because their tax identification number (NIF) was missing from their records.

However, the ACSS lamented that it was not aware of these specific cases, mentioning that since 2023, the 39 ULS have received monthly information about patients whose records were missing mandatory details, alongside awareness campaigns for citizens in 2024 and 2025.

The update has not resulted in what doctors describe as an overwhelming influx of patients at health centres, but some units have experienced increased pressure, particularly in areas already affected by staff shortages.

Nuno Jacinto confirmed that there had been an increase in consultations and requests for information, including from people who rarely used the SNS and wanted to make sure they would not lose access to their family doctor.

He also raised concerns about Portuguese citizens living abroad who have lost their assigned doctor despite retaining their right to use the SNS, arguing that this could disrupt an established relationship between patients and doctors.