According to still provisional data from the Central Administration of the Health System (ACSS), “the activity of primary and hospital health care of the National Health Service (SNS) registers a visible recovery until the end of February”.

“In the first two months of 2022, 121,863 surgeries were performed, which corresponds to an increase of 40.4% compared to last year”, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Regarding the median waiting time for the Surgery Waiting List, the data indicate that it was 3.1 months at the end of February, which means a reduction of 24.8% compared to 2021.

SNS hospitals carried out 2.16 million consultations, which represents a growth of 15.6% compared to the same period in 2021, a number that “is still in line with the values ​​recorded in the same period of 2020 and 2019”, refers the Ministry of Health.

In the area of ​​primary health care, around 6 million consultations (face-to-face, teleconsultation, permanent care service) were registered by the end of February, 5.3% less than in 2021, but 10.4% more than in 2020, before the pandemic.