Portugal creates high-tech performance centers in obstetrics and gynecology

LISBON -- Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa signed on Sunday legislation creating High-Performance Centers in Obstetrics and Gynecology (CED-ObGin), within the scope of the National Health Service (SNS).

According to a statement published on the official Presidency website, these high-technology centers will function as "autonomous management structures based on an innovative model, aimed at strengthening professional attractiveness and retention."

The government announced the centers will begin operating experimentally in 2026 to guarantee "highly differentiated services, training, research" in the SNS.

The declared objective is twofold: enhancing highly differentiated care offerings and critically stopping Portugal's "brain drain," attracting the most qualified professionals, and making them "want to remain" in public service.

The idea is to create environments that retain newly trained specialists and perhaps serve as an attraction for those who already left, with "some possibly interested in returning," Portuguese Health Minister Ana Paula Martins said.

The presidential statement gives a green light to the experimental regime proposal, with the expectation that the solution now found "can be more than a short-term resource and open systematic and lasting perspectives."

Portugal faces challenges in retaining medical specialists, who often seek better compensation and working conditions abroad, particularly in other European Union countries. The high-performance centers represent an attempt to address healthcare workforce shortages affecting obstetrics and gynecology services across the country's public health system.