The National Health Plan has now been extended until 2020 with input from more than 50 regional health branches, which individually drew up their priorities in a bid to tackle local problems as well as bring results closer to those of the country’s top-performers.
The goals aim to reduce the inequalities between the various centres as well as improve their performance and services provided overall.
With heart disease and cancer killing more Portuguese than any other cause of death, nationally, focus is naturally placed on those two diseases.
However, regional challenges have also brought to the fore the specific and distinct health issues affecting different parts of the population.
For example, while alcohol-related diseases such as cirrhosis and hepatitis are the culprits for many premature deaths in the north and centre, the south of the country registers the greatest number of suicides, while major urban centres are troubled by diseases like tuberculosis.
Rui Portugal, coordinator of the National Health Plan said that for the first time ever the plan has seen one of its ambitions fulfilled, to “influence local health strategies.”
“Each region has demographic differences, of mortality, morbidity and access to health care. The idea now is to give resources to and make each manager responsible for planning decisions, contracting, resource management and best practices. We want them to intervene where there is a need”, he explained.
Northern Portugal has defined lung and stomach tumours as its main priorities, as well as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, liver disease and cirrhosis, as they are the major causes of premature deaths in the north, above the national average.
Smoking, alcohol and hypertension are main risk factors in the north, where there are still many new cases of tuberculosis every year despite the overall rate progressively dropping.
Alcohol-related health problems like hepatitis, cirrhosis and cancer are priorities in the north and centre of the country, where they are the third biggest cause of death in under-70’s, after breast cancer and road accidents, the latter of which are also often related to drinking.
In the Algarve, tuberculosis and alcohol-related health issues do not weigh so heavily on the overall scale of priorities, but road accidents do.
The Algarve also deals with many new cases of HIV / AIDS being diagnosed every year as well as serious flaws in access to cancer screening, which could affect its objectives.
Lisbon’s local plans focus on tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and cancer too, as well as mental health and health issues specific to the elderly.
In Amadora, for example, early deaths related to HIV and cancer can sometimes be four times higher than the national average.
Addressing the matter of suicide has been highlighted by the Algarve and the Alentejo as the number of suicide-related deaths in those regions stands above others.
Local health centres in the Alentejo have already implemented measures that aim to shed light on issues such as depression and mental health, as well as investing in community support mechanisms like grief counselling, active aging and educating people on how to properly use medication, among others.