Portugal will have 19 new private hospitals

Portugal will have, at least, 19 brand-new private hospitals until 2020 in a total investment of 750M€. Last year, eight new hospitals were inaugurated as five new others are expected to start operating somewhen between 2019 and 2020, joining the already existing 114 private hospitals in the country.

Three other private hospitals are being projected, having no inauguration deadline as of yet, according to the National Institute of Statistics as revealed by Diário de Notícias (DN).

Among the 19 new hospitals, some will reinforce the existing private healthcare network both in Porto and Lisbon and others will explore new geographies. The President of the Private Healthcare Association, Óscar Gaspar, told DN that “some investments are being made in Madeira, Azores, Vila Real and Viseu”.

Despite the National Health Service (SNS) ensuring more than 80% of the emergency services and more than 70% of the surgeries and hospitalisations, the private healthcare sector registered considerable growth. According to INE, 114 of the 225 existing hospitals are privately owned.

For their administrators, these figures are a sign of trust in the private sector as a consequence of the disbelief in the public health service.