“I just note that complaints, as I said, have increased, above all, in the private sector. But that, for me, is not a reason for satisfaction, it is a reason for concern: I am the Minister of Health, I am not just the Minister of the public health service,” he said.

At the end of a meeting with the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP), which took place in Coimbra, Manuel Pizarro was questioned by journalists about the increase in user complaints, reported by the media, based on data from the Portal da Queixa.

“People are more demanding and I think a large part of this stems from the difficulties of the pandemic years. These were years in which the health system, both public and private, were subjected to great stress and we need now to see if we can manage to rebalance our capacity to respond to people”.

A study released last week indicated that, in the first quarter of 2023, "1,298 complaints related to the Health area were registered on the Portal da Queixa, an increase of around 62% compared to the same period of 2019, the year of pre-pandemic, when 806 complaints were registered against the health sector".

“The data analysed for services provided by public and private hospitals, health centers and medical clinics reveal that the private system is the most targeted, as it was the target of 480 complaints during the first quarter, registering a growth variation of 220%, in terms of compared to the same period in 2019, where it registered only 150 complaints”, he said.