Health Systems in Transition - Portugal

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Health systems in transition Portugal 138
6.1 Analysis of recent reforms
Recent reforms in the health sector in Portugal are inevitably linked to the
MoU (MoU, 2011) signed between the Portuguese Government and the
three international institutions (European Commission, European Central
Bank and International Monetary Fund), in exchange for a €78 billion loan
(see section 1.2). The document, which was evaluated every 3 months and
successively revised during these evaluations, included a list of mandatory
measures (in order to unblock payments from International Monetary Fund,
European Central Bank and European Commission) linked to the health sector,
which were implemented by the Ministry of Health in recent years.
The reforms implemented by the Ministry of Health since 2011 can be
summarized in five dimensions:
• regulation and governance
• health promotion
• pharmaceutical market
• long-term and palliative care
• primary and hospital care.
Table 6.1 shows the key policy areas undergoing reforms from 2010
onwards and their related goals. Although most measures enacted since 2011
were determined by the MoU, in some areas, such as primary and hospital
care, reforms launched before 2011 continue to be pursued to develop the
Primary Healthcare reform (ongoing since 2005, and reprioritized in 2016;
see section 6.1.5) and to facilitate the reorganization of the hospitals in
hospital centres.