Expat Community > Portugal

Aleo
Joined 2019
Posts: 38

Calibrate your expectations about Portuguese healthcare system

3 years ago

This message is just to share my experience. I am not trying to convince anyone, or start a heated discussion, but I believe we need more posts like this to correctly set expectations of people who are considering moving to Portugal from "more organized" countries. I'd also add that I still believe that the pros outweigh the cons so far.

According to the official Health System website, in a few days we are starting phase 2 of Covid-19 vaccinations. They have an online tool, in which you enter your personal information, and they check if you are in the list for this phase. I checked myself and found out that I am not in the list, though I believe I should be. Also, my address has recently changed so we needed to update the address in the SNS system.

I can log into a fancy SNS online dashboard with lots of my health data, but I can neither change my address there, nor it offers any advice as to how the address can be changed. So, I need to go to the local health center to address both issues, and risk catching the virus in the crowd there.

When I arrived at 15:30, a lady at the entrance told me that she is not sure I am supposed to be in the phase 2, but she said it is important to change the address and for this I need to go to a clerk "over there". I went "over there", spent 10 minutes waiting in line, and explained to clerk that I need to change the address associated with my "numero the utente". She said that I need a ticket to talk to her, and the tickets are dispensed by the machine, but only after 16:00. That is completely beyond my understanding. Why the machine cannot give tickets at any time of the day?!

So, I waited another 15 minutes until the machine started to give the tickets. Then I waited another 15 minutes, and got back in front of the same clerk. I explained my request again and she said that she cannot do it, but she gave me a printed piece of paper with the email address I should use to initiate the change.

She could have easily gave me this piece of paper 30 minutes earlier instead of spending her energy on explaining to me that I need to get the ticket from the machine.

When I asked my other question about how I can get on the Phase 2 list, in which, according to the official website, I belong; she simply checked that they have my phone number in the system, and told me that they will call me when my time comes. I tried to explain to her that the problem is that I am not in the correct phase list, but she was stuck in verifying my phone number. Finally, a clerk sitting next to her jumped in and told me that yesterday the government announced a new plan and now the rules are completely different, and now it is all based on age, and there is no priority for specific health problems. I had no other choice than to leave.

I was not able to find any confirmation of this change in vaccination plan - all government websites still display the information about the phased approach, so, I still don't know if she was simply lying to get rid of me. To be fair, I have seen some government websites not getting updated for a very long time, so I am not sure.

I do have a private insurance, but, as I understand, there is no way private healthcare system can help with the vaccination.

Just one data point for your consideration...

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Calibrate your expectations about Portuguese healthcare system

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