OECD Reviews of Health Care Quality: Portugal 2015
Raising Standards
This report reviews the quality of health care in Portugal, seeks to highlight best
practices, and provides a series of targeted assessments and recommendations for further
improvements to quality of care. The Portuguese National Health Service has responded
well to financial pressure, successfully balancing the twin priorities of financial
consolidation and continuous quality improvement. Even in the post-crisis years when
GDP fell and health spending declined, improvements in quality of care continued.
The need to reduce health spending has been met through a combination of structural
reforms, and a well-designed suite of quality initiatives. Reforms around the purchasing
and use of pharmaceuticals and medical devices have helped drive down costs, and Portugal
has been innovative in how public funds are used to pay providers, increasingly basing
payments on quality and efficiency. Important priorities for further work in the Portuguese
health system do remain. Portugal will need to improve clinical processes and pathways,
particularly in the acute sector. There is still room to improve efficiency, for instance
increasing the share of generic drug consumption, and using the Portuguese health
workforce more effectively, especially through expanded roles for nurses. Further
structural reform is needed with an emphasis on shifting care out of hospitals into
less-expensive community settings, and Portugal will also need to reflect on the strategic
direction of the primary care system which, following an impressive reform, now risks
developing into a two-tiered system with increasingly divergent levels of care quality.
Published on May 27, 2015
In series:OECD Reviews of Health Care Qualityview more titles