Porto, Portugal, Nov. 3, 2025 (Lusa) - The prime minister on Monday criticised the "major communication row" that has arisen in Portugal after he said that resources needed to be optimised and financial investment in the health service better managed.

"Because someone said that resources needed to be optimised and financial investment better managed in order to produce better results and, ultimately, to provide a better service while spending less, the country was going to come to a standstill," said Luís Montenegro during a visit to Sword Health in Porto, accompanied by the minister of health, Ana Paula Martins, and the new Mayor of Porto, Pedro Duarte.

In recent days, there has been much criticism after the executive director of the national health service allegedly instructed hospitals to reduce spending in 2026.

According to a report in the Público newspaper, the order is to reduce spending on medicines, additional production (such as after-hours surgeries to ease waiting lists), service providers and staff recruitment.

The Prime Minister regretted that "something so simple and obvious" had been criticised, pointing out that in the last 10 years, spending on the health system had risen from €8 billion to €18 billion, more than double, without any correlation between this increase and the services provided.

"Well, this is what we want. What we want in Portugal is more healthcare, more effectiveness and efficiency and, at the same time, better financial results or savings, as they are called," he stressed.

According to the head of the executive, Portugal must face these problems "without complexes, without barriers, with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit".

"This is the Portugal we want, not the Portugal of the “Velhos do Restelo” (= the grumpy old men) who are always complaining, even when reality shows that they are wrong, that the objectives and results that were set out have not been achieved," he said.

In his opinion, Portugal needs to have a culture that is more committed to results.

Montenegro also said that there are those in Portugal who try to demonise the private health sector by saying, in particular, that the Government wants to privatise health.

"Just yesterday [Sunday] I heard a political leader, a leader of a political party with more than significant responsibilities in recent years, say that this government wanted to privatise healthcare, which is something that is, in fact, difficult to understand, as if we wanted people to have no solution," he said.

The head of the executive stressed that the solution for the national health service is not the private healthcare system and that anyone who has this illusion does not know what they are talking about.

"It is not the private healthcare sector that will save the national health service, it is the national health service that can save the private healthcare sector if it does not send so many patients there," he said.

Montenegro said that the private healthcare sector in Portugal is becoming as blocked as the public sector due to a lack of solutions.

This situation can only be resolved through innovation, harnessing the full potential of technology and applying artificial intelligence to the healthcare process with a sense of responsibility and scientific and technical certainty, he considered.

SVF/AYLS // AYLS

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