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Health systems in transition
Portugal
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The HRA plays an important role in the assessment of quality of care. It
is able to monitor and audit quality of providers, and adherence to legislation.
The HRA also has the role of promoting a system of classification of quality
of health care establishments. That role is embodied by the development of
a National System of Healthcare Evaluation (
Sistema Nacional de Avaliação
em Saúde
). This system is based on a model of global quality assessment of
health care services, aimed to be applied to different health care providers and
including several dimensions of evaluation. The main goals of the National
System of Healthcare Evaluation are promoting patient access, providing
useful and comprehensible information on quality of health care services and
supporting quality health care provision. The Medical Association is responsible
for overseeing medical negligence.
2.4.3 Regulation of services and goods
Basic benefit package
The Ministry of Health is responsible for defining the basic benefit package
offered by the NHS. The NHS predominantly provides primary care and
specialized hospital care. Dental consultations, diagnostic services, renal
dialysis and rehabilitation are more commonly provided in the private sector (but
with public funding to a considerable extent) under contractual arrangements
with the NHS (see section 3.3.1,
Scope: what is covered?
)
There have been no significant changes regarding the basic benefit package
offered by the NHS. The main change introduced was the dental pay cheque in
2008 (see section 3.3.1,
Scope: what is covered?
).