Spending on extra surgeries soars 75% in Lisbon

Thus, in 2022, 7,495 additional surgeries were performed (30.7%) of the total. In 2023, 9,971 were performed (35.6% of the total in that year) and, in 2024, 12,322 (38% of the total). Regarding the stabilization of values ​​with additional surgeries in the last year (which contrasts with the increase in the total number of procedures), the Board of Directors of the ULS of Santa Maria, now led by Carlos Martins, emphasizes that this was due to “ measures implemented and which resulted in a reduction of around 10% in the average cost per surgery in additional production”.

The decision was taken when large payments were detected in the Dermatology service, known since last Friday, when CNN revealed that a dermatologist at the Hospital de Santa Maria had received 400 thousand euros in 10 Saturdays of additional work in 2024.

In another ULS where dermatologists are being scrutinised due to the high amounts earned from additional surgeries, that of the Algarve, spending has also increased significantly in just two years. From 2022 to 2024, the amount allocated to payments to health professionals for surgeries outside normal working hours went from 4.9 million to 7.8 million , an increase of around 60%.

Dermatologist from Santa Maria totaled almost 715 thousand euros, but the coding would be correct

During the same period, and according to data sent to Observador by the ULS of Algarve, the proportion of additional surgeries in relation to the total also increased considerably. While in 2022 only 29.5% of surgeries were performed outside of normal hours, this percentage rose to 36.6% the following year, and to 42.1% in 2024 (that is, almost half of all surgeries were performed outside of normal hours last year). A source from the ULS of Algarve explained to Observador that this situation is related to the extreme shortage of specialists in this region of the country , which has been worsening in recent years (boosting the additional work carried out with the reduced teams that still remain in the public units of the region, where private medicine is proliferating).

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In the largest ULS in the central region, in Coimbra, spending on surgeries also saw significant increases, of around 50% in two years. They went from 5.3 million in 2022 to 6.5 million in 2023 and then, in 2024, increased to 8.2 million , according to information sent to Observador by the ULS in Coimbra. In the same period, the number of patients operated on during additional hours grew by 62%, going from 6,128 in 2022 to 9,942 in 2024 (which represents 29% of total surgeries).

Also in Lisbon, the ULS of Western Lisbon (which includes the São Francisco Xavier, Egas Moniz and Santa Cruz Hospitals) did not disclose total expenditure, opting to send information about the average expenditure per additional surgery, which has remained stable over the last three years. On average, a surgery of this type cost this ULS 995 euros in 2022, 1,072 euros in 2023 and 929 euros last year . As for the absolute number of surgeries performed during additional hours, these almost doubled in just two years (going from 4,004 in 2022 to 7,642 in 2024, an increase of 90%). While in 2022 these surgeries outside the professionals' normal hours represented 23.1% of the total, in 2024 they already accounted for 34.7% of the total scheduled surgeries.

Thus, and multiplying the average cost per surgery by the total number of interventions performed at the ULS in Western Lisbon, it was concluded that expenses amounted to around four million euros in 2022 and 7.1 million euros in 2024 — an increase of around 78% in two years .