Health authorizes SNS to hire 150 doctors on open-ended contracts by December

The Minister of Health, Ana Paula Martins, has authorized the signing of up to 150 open-ended employment contracts in the medical career within the Local Health Units and the Portuguese Oncology Institutes integrated into the National Health Service, until December 31, 2026. The decision is contained in Order no. 13393/2026, signed on October 28 and published in the Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 212, of November 2, 2026, in the Health section, and is based on exceptional situations of manifest urgency that are duly justified.

The invoked legal framework

The order is based on paragraph 8 of article 139 of Decree-Law no. 105/2026, of May 26, which establishes the execution rules for the 2026 State Budget, and on paragraph 1 of article 99 of the Statute of the National Health Service, approved by Decree-Law no. 52/2022, of August 4. The regulation is articulated with the medical career regime in public business entities, established by Decree-Law no. 176/2009, of August 4, and with the special regime for the admission of medical personnel created by Decree-Law no. 41/2024, of June 21.

The measure comes after the conclusion of the normal 2026 medical internship evaluation period, following the publication of two orders dated May 11: Order no. 5941/2026 allowed for the establishment of 2,528 legal employment relationships with medical personnel, and Order no. 5965/2026 identified the job positions to be filled in the competitive procedures opened for that purpose. According to the preamble, given the scheduling of the 2026 special final internship evaluation period, the respective competitions are only expected to allow for the establishment of new employment relationships starting from January 2027.

Career-based contracts, with a defined deadline

Until December 31, 2026, entities may sign up to 150 open-ended employment contracts in the medical career, based on the career structure, subject to authorization from the government member responsible for the health area. The hirings are intended to fill vacant job positions in the respective personnel maps and must be based on exceptional situations that, in a justified manner, prove to be of manifest urgency.

The order takes effect on the date of its signature and remains in force until December 31, 2026, determining that the processing of hiring requests shall have priority status. The authorization is justified by the need for immediate reinforcement of medical teams until the end of the year, specifically for the execution of the Seasonal Winter Plan and for the preparation of the full implementation, on January 1, 2027, of the medical service provision regime.

Who cannot be hired

The diploma closes the door to several profiles, who are excluded from the quota of 150 contracts:

• Doctors holding an open-ended public service employment contract or an open-ended employment contract concluded with entities of the National Health Service.
• Doctors who held a link of this nature in the three months prior to the date on which the entity formalizes the hiring request.
• Doctors who complete their medical internship with approval in the 2026 special final evaluation period, whose recruitment is governed by the competitive procedure of Decree-Law no. 41/2024.
• Doctors who, having completed the internship with approval in the 2026 normal period, have not submitted an application to the competitive procedure provided for in the same decree-law.

Request to the Executive Directorate and prior opinion

Each hiring is preceded by a request from the hiring entity to the Executive Directorate of the National Health Service, I. P., supported by the justification of the need and an estimate of the gains in healthcare production and the financial impact. The Executive Directorate forwards the request to the member of the Government within a maximum period of five working days, accompanied by a favorable prior opinion, in which six factors must be considered:

• The justification for the hiring and the entity’s service portfolio, including the healthcare profile and positioning within the Hospital Referral Networks of the specialty.
• The shortage of medical personnel in the specialty, both in the interested establishment or service and in other entities of the National Health Service.
• The production gains expected from the hiring.
• The forecast and existence of a vacant workstation in the personnel map.
• The projected financial impact, including the estimated reduction in costs associated with overtime and the provision of medical services.
• The existence of budgetary availability.

The order further clarifies that these hirings do not prejudice any requests under no. 9 of Order no. 5965/2026 nor the workstations allocated to the 2026 internship special period competitions. The contracts concluded are reported monthly by the entities to the Central Administration of the Health System, I. P., which transmits the same information, with the same frequency, to the Treasury and Finance Entity.

In practice, the authorization creates a fast and limited track to reinforce medical teams in the last two months of the year, without waiting for the internship competitions, but keeps recruitment conditional on a prior opinion, budgetary availability, and verification that a vacant post exists. For users of local health units and oncology institutes, the effect will depend on how many of the 150 contracts are effectively requested and authorized by December 31, 2026.

Source: Diário da República, 2nd series, no. 212, of November 2, 2026, Health (official reference: Order no. 13393/2026).