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Tens of thousands of families in Portugal to be given access to family doctor

Xinhua, October 1, 2015 Adjust font size:

Portugal's Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that 450,000 Portuguese citizens will be given a family doctor in the upcoming weeks.

The Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS) told broadcaster TSF that 300 new doctors who have just obtained their specialty would be hired.

The ministry of health also pointed out that in the past two months, 100,000 Portuguese people were attributed a family doctor.

Figures released by the ACSS in August showed that around 1,192 patients in Portugal didn't have a family doctor.

Rui Nogueira, head of the Portuguese Association for General and Family Medicine, told Xinhua he was particularly concerned with the periphery of Lisbon and pointed to the risk of many doctors asking for early retirement.

"There are some units in which there is a dramatic situation, where 30 percent don't have a family doctor in some units in the periphery of Lisbon," Nogueira said.

"We are also worried that in the next four years or so there will be a great number of doctor retiring," he added.

The Socialist Party, the country's main opposition party, has criticized the lack of family doctors, with the party's Secretary General Antonio Costa promising the Portuguese half a million people family doctors if he is elected on Oct. 4. Endit