# Healthcare along Silver Coast



## sponger (Jun 4, 2020)

Hello all.

Quick question (maybe). While I understand Lisbon, Porto, and Algarve all have very fine private hospitals, are there areas along the Silver Coast with the same? I'd be on private insurance and would ideally want to go to a predominantly English-speaking high-quality hospital in the case of a real emergency or a serious medical issue. 

I did a quick search and couldn't specifically find an answer. Also...someone I recently talked with suggested it's a lot tougher to find outside the three major areas.

Thanks
Sp~


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## Strontium (Sep 16, 2015)

Not a direct answer to your question but an explanation. Approximately 25% (2.5 million) of the population is in Lisbon and 20% (2 million) in Oporto and majority of the "rich" foreigners are in parts of the Algarve so you'd expect any private company (ie hospital) which depends on it's customers to be in these places. The majority of Portuguese and residents from the EU are covered by the Portuguese Health Service which is not private and as the average income in modest few people here have private medical insurance as they do not need it. There are specific issues in some places due to things like accessibility for ambulances in case of emergency but most of the towns in Portugal have adequate to exceptional medical facilities and a majority of doctors speak English as it's essential for some medical studies. Like in Cuba - in case of emergency the emphasis here seems to be on speed, diagnosis and medical intervention and not filling in forms nor trying to ascertain if your insurance covers the costs. If on the Silver Coast and having an unplanned heart attack I can recommend Coimbra Hospital for a no nonsense efficient response.


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