New SNS booking system for specialist appointments and surgery to start in January 2027, five months later than planned
SINACC (Sistema Nacional de Acesso a Consultas e Cirurgias), the new system for booking appointments with hospital specialists and planned surgery, will be launched in January 2027, the health minister, Ana Paula Martins, has announced (ECO). It will replace SIGIC, the current surgery waiting list system. SINACC was originally due to start in August 2026, but the launch was postponed after criticism from the Ordem dos Médicos (the Medical Association): doctors objected to ministry orders under which some patients would no longer be put on the surgery waiting list, and warned that waiting lists would become harder to monitor. The minister said the errors in the orders would be corrected.
According to the minister, under the new system patients will be free to choose where to be treated if their own hospital cannot see them within the set time limit: the government wants to use all available capacity (Observador).
The minister called the failure to carry out operations on time the biggest problem facing the SNS. From January to July 2026 state hospitals performed 4.9% fewer operations than a year earlier — 24,000 fewer. A record 284,000 people are now waiting for planned surgery (more details). In the first half of November the ministry will amend Portaria 281/2026, the order on extra operations beyond the planned workload: it led surgical teams to refuse to do additional operations, and operations were cancelled.
The minister named population growth as one of the reasons for the pressure on the SNS. Between 2021 and 2025 Portugal's population grew by about 825,000, largely because of newcomers: the number of foreign residents rose from about 748,000 to 1.6 million, or 14% of all residents (Jornal Económico). Over the same period, she said, SNS spending as a share of GDP has not risen. The 2027 budget allocates €17.858 billion to health — 2.9% more than is expected to be spent in 2026, not counting money from the PRR, the European recovery plan.
