Are there English-speaking doctors in Portugal?

I often say that you feel safer if you can be sick in your own language. There are excellent hospitals and excellent doctors in Portugal, all of whom speak English. The nurses also speak English. You are very well cared for.

 

I have a lot of experience with the healthcare system in Portugal is because of my husband having been in hospital so much before he died last year. Whether you go to a public hospital or if you have private insurance, the doctors here...

I often say that you feel safer if you can be sick in your own language. There are excellent hospitals and excellent doctors in Portugal, all of whom speak English. The nurses also speak English. You are very well cared for.

 

I have a lot of experience with the healthcare system in Portugal is because of my husband having been in hospital so much before he died last year. Whether you go to a public hospital or if you have private insurance, the doctors here are very, very good. And there is a lot of ongoing very high quality research going on. I often say to visitors to Portugal that you don’t need to think about getting on a plane and flying home unless you’re doing so for a specific doctor who you don’t have here.  Other than that, from a healthcare perspective, there’s everything here. 

 

Things have changed so much regarding the language here. It’s important to perhaps pick up some words in Portuguese and there are lots of schools you can go to but the Portuguese are quite happy if speaking English to you. They prefer to speak English to you in order to practice their English rather than you struggling Portuguese, but it’s always good to say “obrigado” (please) and “faz favor”  (thank you).

 

The Portuguese spoken in Portugal is more formal than the Portuguese spoken in Brazil.  For many people it’s easier to pick up Portuguese from the Brazilians because the way Brazilians speak Portuguese is more musical as opposed to the way those the Portuguese speak it, wherein they would tend to sometimes swallow the end of the word.  I learned my Portuguese in Brazil when we were living there. The difference is it’s a little bit like the difference between American English and English from England, where you have the same word but maybe different meanings.

 

(Logo for Todos os Santos clinic, Lisbon, Portugal, pictured.)