The government has not appointed this body for 19 months.

“We have been without a National Palliative Care Commission for 19 months,” APCP president Catarina Pazes told the Lusa news agency, noting that the situation “has gone beyond all limits.”

She explained that care teams in the field need guidance so that all Local Health Units (ULS) can define objectives “aligned to have both a pediatric and an adult palliative care team.”

Specialised teams

“This entails having a strategy, integrating care, and ensuring collaborative work between these specialised teams and other teams; but coordination and strategy are essential,” she added.

Catarina Pazes said the teams feel abandoned and that authorities appear uninterested, emphasising that palliative care makes a world of difference for patients and their families.

In a petition submitted to the Assembly of the Republic in late September—which garnered over 9,500 signatures—the APCP calls for urgent action to strengthen palliative care in Portugal, noting that more than 150,000 people annually experience suffering associated with serious, progressive, and incurable illnesses.

Of these, between 70,000 and 85,000 people die each year in need of palliative care. “Joining them are thousands of children and young people with complex illnesses who would benefit from this specialised support,” she added. In the petition, the signatories argue that palliative care is not a luxury but a fundamental right focused on quality of life, relief from suffering, and support for the individual and their family in moments of greatest vulnerability.

They also highlight the lack of adequate services in Portugal, citing European recommendations that the country needs more than 100 community-- and hospital-based teams and approximately 1,000 specialised beds.

“Existing coverage represents only a fraction of that figure, characterised by stark regional disparities and a lack of adequate services in various parts of the country,” they emphasise, adding that current figures not only fail to reflect the population’s actual needs but also frequently conflate distinct types of care—services that “cannot replace specialised palliative care beds in acute care hospitals.”

Ageing population

In a country with an ageing population and increasingly complex clinical and social needs, the APCP argues that addressing this issue can no longer be postponed. They state that this delay represents “a choice” with consequences that include avoidable suffering, overburdened families, unnecessary hospital admissions, and a “loss of dignity at the end of life.”

In the petition, the signatories call on the Government to expand community- and hospital-based palliative care teams nationwide and to strengthen the National Palliative Care Network. They seek more beds and specialised services for adults and children in both acute care hospitals and the National Network of Integrated Continuous Care.

They also call for incentives and conditions to retain specialised professionals, as well as official recognition of palliative medicine as an autonomous medical speciality.

In February, the APCP highlighted findings from a report by the Health Regulatory Authority (ERS) on the National Palliative Care Network (RNCP). The report indicated that more than half (53%) of patients referred for such care within the National Health Service in 2024 died while waiting for a vacancy—a higher proportion than in the two previous years (47.5% in 2023 and 48% in 2022).

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