The figures show that Portugal had 242 hospitals in 2023, 38 more than two decades earlier. Of these, 107 were public or public-private partnership facilities with universal access through the SNS or regional health services of the autonomous regions.

In these hospitals, average stays rose from 7.6 days in 2003 to nine days in 2023, when nearly 14 million outpatient consultations took place in medical specialties such as oncology, pediatrics and psychiatry.

That year, universal access hospitals registered 6.5 million emergency visits, reflecting the overall decline. Staffing levels also increased, with 23,551 doctors (two-thirds of them specialists) and 43,468 nurses, including 23% with specialist training, working in these hospitals by the end of 2023.

The sharpest growth came from the private sector, which expanded from 89 hospitals in 2003 to 130 in 2023.

INE noted that the SNS and regional services remain the main funders of current healthcare expenditure, covering on average 54.8% of costs over the past four years. Households accounted for 28.9% of spending directly, while insurance companies have taken on a growing share in recent years.