Portugal: Health service treated 8,344 patients from Africa from 2016 to 2019

Portugal’s National Health Service (SNS) treated 8,344 patients from Portuguese-language countries in Africa between 2016 and 2019, most of them from Guinea-Bissau, according to official figures. 

These patients, who are sent to Portugal under cooperation agreements between Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe, suffer from pathologies that need the kind of specialised care that do not exist in their countries. 

The most sought-after specialities are cardiology, oncology, ophthalmology, paediatrics, urology, otorhinolaryngology, general and paediatric surgery, orthopaedics and neurosurgery.

According to data from Portugal’s Directorate-General of Health (DGS), in the four years in question Guinea-Bissau was the country that sent the most patients to Portugal (53% of the total), followed by the much smaller nations of Cabo Verde (31%) and Sao Tome and Principe (12%).

In 2016, Portugal treated 1,748 patients sent by these Portuguese-language countries in Africa; in 2017 it treated 2,705; in 2018 it was 2,307; and last year 1,595.

Last year, Angola sent 46 patients to Portugal, Cabo Verde 619, Guinea-Bissau 681, Mozambique 35 and Sao Tome 234.

In the period in question, it was in 2018 that Angola sent the greatest number of patients to Portugal (123), as was the case for Guinea-Bissau (1,682), Cabo Verde and Sao Tome (659 and 284 respectively), while Mozambique sent the most last year, at 35 patients.

These international agreements aim to assure that patients sent by Portuguese-language countries in Africa are given medical care in the same conditions as residents of Portugal. They are given hospital and outpatient healthcare in the SNS of a kind that the health systems of their countries of origin does not have the technical capacity to provide.

According to the DGS, these patients are subject to rules and procedures in access to the SNS that distinguish them from other foreign nationals, by virtue of the cooperation agreements, having acquired the status of evacuated patients. 

To receive treatment in Portugal, these patients must be approved by the National Medical Board or other competent health authority of their country of origin.