Portugal's health system sees four‑month gap before new family doctors start

The National Doctors Federation (FNAM) criticised a four‑month gap between the completion of training for new family‑medicine specialists in March and their placement in health centres in July. The delay affected the rollout of 273 doctors out of 711 national vacancies, leaving roughly 400,000 patients still without an assigned family physician and contributing to the existing 1.6 million people lacking a family doctor.

FNAM said the postponement was incomprehensible and urged the Ministry of Health to publish and adhere to recruitment calendars, expand vacancy‑selection periods, and keep unfilled posts open. It also noted that only 62 % of the 441 admitted candidates chose a position, while 38 % declined, calling for an investigation into the reasons for refusals.