Health Systems in Transition - Portugal

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Health systems in transition Portugal 148
• The National Health Council, created in 2016, is an independent body
gathering stakeholders in the health sector, and might have a relevant role
improving accountability, by: reaching consensus, acting as a consultant
body for the government and producing studies and recommendations on
all issues related with health policies.
7.1 Monitoring health system performance
Portugal has an extensive information infrastructure that spans almost all
levels of care, and these data are also in many instances actively used to drive
quality improvements (OECD, 2015a). Data sources include setting-specific
information structures (e.g. primary care settings, hospitals), and disease-
specific registers and data sources.
Much of Portugal’s data infrastructure involves the use of electronic patient
records and unique patient identifiers. These records go towards the Portuguese
Health Data Platform (Plataforma de Dados da Saúde, PDS), which consists of a
Patient Portal (Portal do Utente ), a Professional Portal (Portal do Professional),
an Institutional Portal (Portal Institucional) and an International Portal (Portal
Internacional). Since February 2016, access to those portals has been possible
through the new NHS website . The different portals hold
different information, to be used in different ways. For example, in the citizen’s
portal, the citizens – using their health care identification number – can access
information about electronic prescriptions, scheduled appointments and health-
related information. Citizens can also add information regarding their health
status. However, how these data are going to be used is yet to be defined.
The PDS is intended to be an information sharing system, allowing the
same information to be fragmented and sent to different agents (patients
and professionals within or outside the NHS). PDS includes a range of data,
including prescriptions, disease-specific registers (e.g. chronic kidney disease
register), surgical safety checklists and birth reports; it also has long-term
care information such as the RNCCI database. The platform is managed by
the SPMS, which is the body within the Ministry of Health responsible for
managing health information technologies.
There are other platforms used to monitor the health system’s performance.
Operating since 2010, under the ACSS, the Centre for Controlling and
Monitoring the NHS (Centro de Controlo e Monitorização) manages all
activities related to invoice processing and is an important tool in fighting