Since 1976 the Portuguese National Health Service
(NHS) is mostly financed by public budget.
Financial resources directed towards health care have reached a
very high level. In fact, approximately 10% of GDP is devoted to
health expenditure, which puts Portugal among the countries with
the highest level of health spending within Europe. Urgent
intervention is needed, not only to better manage the few
resources available, as well as to find other funding sources. The
financial crisis turns the need to contain public spending a priority,
making urgent the definition of funding strategies for the national
health systems sustainability.
Objective: In this study we collected the physician’s perspective
about the most viable funding sources for the NHS and about the
best way to finance the hospital services where they are working
