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5. Provision of services
Chapter summary
•
Public health services in Portugal include the surveillance of health
status and identification of its determinants, health promotion and
disease prevention at community level and health impact assessment.
•
Portuguese primary care is delivered by a mix of public and private
health service providers, including: primary care centres integrated
into the NHS, private sector (both non-profit-making and profit-making),
and self-employed professionals/groups.
•
FHUs (2007) and ACES (2008) have restructured the organization
of Portuguese primary care.
•
Secondary and tertiary care is mainly provided in hospitals, whose
network was reorganized in recent years (e.g. for hospitals in 2002
and long-term care network in 2006).
•
P-PPs have been introduced for renewed infrastructures in recent years
but, at the time of writing, no additional P-PPs are being planned for the
health sector.
•
Vertical integration of health care has been enhanced since 1999 by the
local health units (
Unidades Locais de Saúde
), which allow the integration
of hospitals and primary health care units in the same organization.
•
The RNCCI (2006) combines teams providing long-term care, social support
and palliative care with its origins in community services, and covers
hospitals, ACES, local and district social security services and municipalities.
•
INEM is the organization within the Ministry of Health responsible for
the coordination and functioning of an integrated medical emergency
system in mainland Portugal, ensuring the rapid and appropriate delivery
of emergency care.
•
A maximum number of pharmacies is allowed in each community and
the location of those is highly regulated.
5. Provision of services