The waiting room at the centro de saúde (health centre) smells of disinfectant and coffee from the machine. On the screen, the numbers tick by, a grandmother knits, a baby protests. You have your file under your arm and one question on your mind: will you leave with your utente number in Portugal, or with a "volte amanhã" (come back tomorrow)? With the right papers, the first is more likely.
The utente number is your way into the SNS, Portugal's national health service. Here is how to get it, what really decides whether your care is covered, and how it works depending on whether you work, are retired or are still in transition.
What is the utente number in Portugal for?
The número nacional de utente identifies every patient in the Registo Nacional de Utentes, the register of SNS users. Despacho n.º 40/2025, in force since 1 April 2025, is clear: this number is unique, national and permanent. You keep it for life, even if you move to another town.
Without it, you can be treated in an emergency, but everything becomes harder: no registration at a health centre, no family doctor, no long-term follow-up. With it, you have access to primary care, to specialist consultations on referral and to public hospitals on the same terms as Portuguese people. It is also with this number that you can book some hospital consultations online, once your doctor has referred you.
The system is built on Unidades de Saúde Familiar (USF, family health units) and other primary care units, grouped into unidades locais de saúde (local health units). That is where you will be registered, with a team made up of a family doctor and a family nurse.
How do you get your utente number in Portugal?
Portuguese citizens receive it with their identity card. For a foreigner, the rule of the Portuguese public service is simple: the number is assigned the first time you go to a public health unit, such as a health centre or a hospital.
The most logical route, then, is to register at the health centre for the area where you live, which is the one gov.pt says to choose first. If you do not have a number yet, it will be assigned when you register. Not sure which centre covers your address? The SNS 24 line (808 24 24 24) can tell you.
There is also a combined route: foreigners living in Portugal, EU citizens included, can apply for the NIF, the NISS and the utente number in one go. The official page, updated in September 2026, specifies that this service is offered in only twelve Espaços Cidadão (citizen service points). If one of them is near you, it saves real time.
Good to know: if you are living temporarily in another municipality, for studies or a contract of a few months, you can register at another centre for up to twelve months. Your original registration is suspended, then resumes automatically.
Which documents do you need for the SNS to cover your care?
This is the point many people discover too late. The Portuguese public service puts it bluntly: having a utente number in Portugal does not guarantee that your costs will be covered. For the SNS to pay, your file must include:
- an identity document;
- a Portuguese NIF (tax number);
- a full address in Portugal;
- a valid residence document.
For a citizen of the EU or Switzerland, a French, Belgian or Swiss national for example, that residence document is the certificado de registo, issued by the town hall after three months of residence. Our guide to the EU residence certificate in Portugal explains how to get it, and the one on getting your NIF in Portugal completes the file.
The health centre may also ask for proof of any particular entitlements, such as an exemption. Bring the originals and copies: a gap like that easily turns one visit into two.
Retired, employed, in transition: what cover for your situation?
You work in Portugal. Employed or self-employed, you pay contributions to Portuguese social security, the Segurança Social, which means you need a NISS. Our guide to the NISS and Portuguese social security covers the process. You then register at the health centre as a resident.
You are retired with a pension from your home country. If your only pension comes from France, Belgium or Switzerland, that country remains responsible for your healthcare. You ask for the S1 form from the body that pays your pension (for the French general scheme, the CNAV, according to the Cleiss), ideally before you leave. In Portugal, the ACSS states that the S1 is handed in at the district centre of the Segurança Social, which then directs you to the health centre where you should register. Your care is then covered under Portuguese rules, not those of the country that pays your pension. Our article on retiring in Portugal looks at the whole project.
You are still in transition. During a temporary stay, the European Health Insurance Card issued by your home country covers unplanned care in the public sector. It does not replace registration: once you have settled, registration with the SNS, as a resident or with an S1, takes over.
If you are moving from Switzerland, the same rules apply: Switzerland is part of the European coordination system, and both the S1 and the European card work for Swiss residents.
How do you get a family doctor in Portugal?
Once registered, you can be assigned a family health team. Despacho n.º 40/2025 distinguishes three situations: the utente with a family health team, the utente without one, and the utente without one by choice, who can ask for one at any time.
In practice, a family doctor is not always assigned as soon as you register. Lists fill up according to the places available, with priority for households that include a pregnant woman, a person with a chronic illness or several conditions, or a child up to the age of 12. And the rule has a flip side: a foreign resident registered with a family doctor who has no consultation for five years can lose their place on the list.
This doctor is also your route to specialists: hospital specialist consultations require a credencial, a referral letter from your family doctor or the hospital. Until you have one, you can be seen at the health centre in what the Despacho calls an occasional contact, without being on a list. Same principle if you fall ill on holiday at the other end of the country: you can see a doctor at another unit without changing your registration. Many expats add private health insurance, especially for specialists, but the SNS remains the foundation.
Emergencies, SNS 24, user fees: what do you pay and whom do you call?
Life-threatening emergency: 112, free, 24 hours a day.
A doubt, a fever, a sick child on a Sunday: the SNS 24 line, on 808 24 24 24. The clinical service answers 24 hours a day, the administrative service every day from 8 am to 10 pm. The call is charged at the price of a call to a landline. A health professional assesses the situation over the phone and directs you to the right service.
How much does it cost? Since Decreto-Lei n.º 37/2022, the taxas moderadoras (user fees) have disappeared from the whole SNS, except in hospital emergency departments. And even there, you do not pay if you were referred by the SNS, for example after a call to SNS 24, or if your visit to the emergency department ends with a hospital admission. Hence the habit to adopt: call SNS 24 before rushing to A&E, unless the emergency is obvious.
For children, remember to register each of them: they have their own number, and the Despacho favours registration by household, so that the whole family is attached to the same doctor. It is also the moment to mention a pregnancy or a chronic illness, which give priority for the assignment of a family doctor.
One last tip: save your utente number in your phone, next to your NIF. Pharmacy, health centre, hospital: you will be asked for it everywhere, and it will soon be a number you know by heart.