Portugal faces healthcare IT outage and municipal cyberattack

Portugal is facing significant disruptions due to separate technological failures affecting both national healthcare and local government services.

The National Health Service (SNS) experienced a widespread IT outage on Monday, October 19, starting around 10:00 AM. The failure impacted the Electronic Medical Prescription (PEM) and the Electronic Health Record (RSE) systems, preventing doctors from issuing prescriptions or accessing patient clinical data. The National Federation of Doctors (FNAM) reported issues in several local health units, including São João, Matosinhos, and Médio Ave, suggesting a national impact. While some systems began returning to normality by midday, union leaders criticized the Ministry of Health for inadequate modernization.

Simultaneously, the Municipality of Ovar was targeted by a cyberattack that compromised its technological systems over the weekend. As a result, several municipal services, including urbanism, veterinary services, and various museums and cultural centers, have been closed to the public until Wednesday, October 21. The municipality has suspended administrative deadlines to ensure citizens are not penalized by the disruption while technical teams work to restore the systems.