barlaventoexpert

Portugal is considerably more advance than France then.

Registration for most Govt. Services (including health) now requires a Portuguese Mobile number for exactly this reason.

My understanding from the Portuguese Press and my wife's recent discussion with our Medica da Familia is that Phase II, at present, is scheduled to begin towards the end of March, all being well. All persons registered with the SNS will receive an SMS asking them if they want to be vaccinated and then a second one, in due course, to confirm the place and location of the jab.

wellinever

In Portugal, given that you have not been texted by SNS, would it be important to check that the SNS has an up to date phone number for you, especially if others in the same region have received some sort of contact from the SNS.
So in the event that a check should be done, can that done online to save a trip to the local Centro de Saude?
If so does anyone know how to do that?? Do do you need a digital key??

sportpix

I have no idea whether I’m in the ‘system’ or not, however I had a medical to exchange my driving license which was linked in to the driving license department, and hopefully the health department. Is there some kind of physical visit to be made to a clinic to register or does this happen automatically when the other residency documents are issued?

wellinever

Sounds like u have a and number. But maybe they don't have up to date phone number. I am sure that is the case for me

Red Eric

If you already have a utente number, why don't you just phone your Centro de Saúde and ask them to check?

sportpix

thanks Red. I will arrive on Tuesday so will prioritise this as soon as I’m settled in to Arctic Algarve and right after I buy a few bottles of non-Australia red ...

Rambling archer

RedEric said - We're very advanced here - we get prescriptions by SMS these days And they can check to see whether you've bought them.

Can you explain how to go about that - we are up to date with phone number etc, but have never been offered an SMS service for repeat prescriptions, but go to the health centre every few months which is a pain at present what with the pandemic, only a locum GP once a week or when available! How do you sign up for SMS prescriptions, and how do you print them out, or do you just show the phone to the Pharmacist?

RedEric also said - If you already have a utente number, why don't you just phone your Centro de Saúde and ask them to check?

If it is anything like our Centre Saude unless you have really good Portuguese it is a non-starter to phone!!! And to do anything, like make a general enquiry in person, you have to queue up with everyone else outside (in this frigid weather!!) to get to the desk to ask! Really has been a nightmare since the old GP retired in June! I do believe the SNS for providing local services is a wreck at present concentrating all efforts on the hospitals (understandable) and the larger cities while more rural areas are left to fend for themselves - anyone one else feel the same?

toots sweet

Are we missing something? Any advice much appreciated. We visited Our centro da saude last year to register(?) My OH is PT and got utente number with a GP's name on it... mine did not. OH can't remember if you keep your old number or get a new one(he's been in UK since the 80's). Since then we have not visited or heard from them, except to get a prescription for him. We are both pensioners so what do we need to do now(re S1 form?) or anything else. And if there is something we have to do, can we do it online? Head is so full of new rules and regs that I've reached the limit of what my brain is ready to retain!!!!
Thanks

wellinever

Me too...........finally managed to get local centro saude to answer phone today ref changing phone number...was told in good English to go to the closest one to me which is actually different from where I am registered.so trotted along to it, to get it changed........DOH.....looked at my SNS papers (2005), looked on PC and said why have you come here? Your GP is in ********.. Because they told me to on the phone about 10 minutes ago.......but you have no SS number nor NIF !!!!
This is due to admin cock up 15 years ago when I was a resident and they gave me a utenete number without a SS number, althoigh they should have my HIF as I have had it for over 20 years since first buying a house in the 90s.
So upshot is, no they were not prepared to update the phone number.
LOL this will just get more complicated as I stopped being a resident in 2010, but they hve left my SNS number in place, and I have not used the SNS simce perferrig to use UK NHS where I was a resident ,,,,,now having just taken out new residency and now being a pensioner with an S1 registered just before Brexit day, I am waiting for a SS number and a new residency number.happy days........all down to the opeless admin back in the day......how was I to know they had done the job incorrectly. SO now gonna wait until new SS number arrives. I suspect that the vaccine will not be available to over 70s until March/April so no big deal. Unless i can get back to the UK and have it done with a better vaccine..

Red Eric

As far as I remember, I didn't have to do anything to get prescriptions by SMS - at first they started arriving alongside the paper version. They're not automatic for repeat prescriptions - you still have to request those, but you can do that by phone or just pop in to reception rather than having to always see a doctor.

The paperless prescriptions have been about for some time and are operative throught the entire country so I guess if you're not getting them it's worth asking about.

What you get is a code which you can show the pharmacist, who has access to the full version. You can also access it via an app or a web page but you need to authenticate yourself with either Cartão do Cidadão (which most of us forriners won't have) or Chave Móvel Digital, which, for some reason which now escapes me, I also don't have. I'm sure there was a good reason though. Anyhow, the pharmacist will print it out for me and if I buy only some of the items, helpfully changes the numbers so I always know where I am.

Red Eric

If you are both in receipt of UK state pensions and have no pension from Portugal or any other EU member state, then you ought to obtain a UK S1 form and take that to Social Security. They record it at this end and notify the UK, which completes the process and enables the reciprocal charging so the PT health service doesn't bear the costs of your healthcare. It also enables you to apply to the UK for EHIC cover and to use the NHS on visits to the UK.

You receive notification from PT social security when done and you take that to your health centre.

EDIT : adding link - Using an S1 form in Portugal

toots sweet

Red Eric " If you are both in receipt of UK state pensions and have no pension from Portugal or any other EU member state, then you ought to obtain a UK S1 form and take that to Social Security."

Husband has a small PT pension. So does he not need the S1 form?(even though he's been out of the country for a good part of 30 years)

Rambling archer

RedEric - thanks for that explanation though nothing like that has been offered to us - we will definitely enquire at our next appointment (sorry, queueing session, as they refuse to make appointments for the locum at the moment).
Cheers!

Red Eric

Correct.

Handy explainer here which covers all eventualities : HEALTH CARE FOR PENSIONERS FROM A MEMBER STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AREA, OR SWITZERLAND, WHO COME TO RESIDE IN PORTUGAL

Rambling archer

Toots - yours should be straightforward enough - but I suggest for Hubby you get him to ask first at the Social Security office by phone initially, but may have to go in person, what he should do as a Portuguese national with overseas pension which is greater than his small PT pension, and if they advise that he should go the UK route, then he needs to contact the UK. Of course there is always the option for one of you to hold the other as "Dependant" but then should the inevitable eventually happen that one of you pre-deceases the other some complications arise in then applying as a single pensioner. Usually individual applications are best when both of you are pensionable.
Our case is not the same, but may be of interest - we have small pensions from work done in France and Spain, but the much larger pension is from the UK - time worked before moving abroad and upkeep of voluntary payments while working abroad, so our S1s are agreed by Portugal and UK to come from the UK, even though we last worked in Spain.