Estimates suggest that around four million Portuguese have at least one chronic disease, which represents a challenge for people, the health system and society. As part of the Academy for the Empowerment of Patients’ Associations (ACAD), a project of the NOVA National School of Public Health (NOVA NSPH), a group of Patients’ Associations organised an event under the motto ‘Statute of the Chronic Patient: Presentation and Future Perspectives’.
At the meeting, a presentation was made of the proposed statute and the needs felt by those living with a chronic disease were shared, as well as the importance of the multidisciplinary working group dedicated to this issue, included in this year’s State Budget, moving forward.
The event, which took place on 18 September, was organised by a group of Patients‘ Associations, following on from the work carried out in 2023 at the 5th edition of the ACAD.
In Portugal, chronic diseases are responsible for a large part of the national disease burden. According to the Directorate-General for Health’s 2019 Health Report, around 85 per cent of deaths in Portugal are attributed to chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes and respiratory diseases, for example. Data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) also indicates that around 22 per cent of the Portuguese population lives with at least one chronic disease.
Chronic diseases therefore represent a complex challenge in Portugal and worldwide, with significant figures in terms of their prevalence and associated mortality.
For ACAD coordinator and NOVA NSPH professor Ana Rita Oliveira Goes, ‘it is essential to create strategies centred on prevention, early diagnosis and appropriate treatment of chronic disease, without forgetting the dimension of raising awareness in civil society of the impact that diagnosis has. This event seeks to publicise the proposal for a Chronic Patient Statute, developed by the National Federation of Chronic Disease Associations (FENDOC) and to promote reflection on the needs and challenges facing those living with a chronic disease.’
‘For NOVA NSPH, and for ACAD in particular, it’s important not only to think about this and other issues that are relevant in the health context at all times, but also to create moments like this, in which Patients‘ Associations can meet, dialogue, think together and, in the case of this initiative in particular, learn about the Chronic Patient Statute, the path taken to create this document, and the absolute necessity and relevance associated with its implementation,’ concludes Ana Rita Oliveira Goes.
Jaime Melancia, president of the Plataforma Saúde em Diálogo (Health in Dialogue Platform) and a member of FENDOC, also stresses the importance of ‘rethinking the management of chronic disease in a health system that continues to be geared towards and organised to respond to acute illness’, pointing out that recent statistics show that ‘around four million Portuguese have at least one chronic disease, which means that the latter will continue to be very present in the health system, along with the need to reorganise a system that is capable of providing a timely, adjusted, fair and equal response to the chronically ill’.
Carlos Oliveira, president of FENDOC, also agrees that the creation of the Chronic Patient Statute was born from the premise that all chronic patients should have the same basic treatment and equal rights and benefits. ‘The path, which began around 25 years ago, continues to be trodden, and a law was recently created in the 2024 state budget that includes the creation of a multidisciplinary working group to draw up a statute for the chronically ill, which defines chronic disease, the levels of illness and specific support according to each pathology,’ he explains, adding that the working group has yet to make progress.