How to call an ambulance in Portugal: 112, SNS 24 and what happens next

There is no separate ambulance number to memorise in Portugal. The emergency contacts page on the Portuguese government portal gov.pt, last updated 3 December 2024, lists 112 for medical emergency and states two things a new arrival needs: "O 112 é o número de telefone de emergência único europeu", 112 is the single European emergency number, and "Disponível 24h por dia, todos os dias", available 24 hours a day, every day. It adds: "As chamadas são gratuitas", the calls are free.

Free means free in the way that matters in a crisis. This is the number you dial from a mobile with no credit, from a landline in a rented apartment on your first week, or from a stranger's phone. It is also the same number your children already know if they have been in a European school, and it is the number to teach them if they have not.

Medical emergency calls in Portugal are handled by INEM, the national institute of medical emergency, through its urgent patient dispatch centres. INEM's own website returned an access error to the automated checks made for this guide on 8 August 2026, so the operational detail of what the dispatcher does on the call is not restated here (verify with INEM).

Source: gov.pt, Contactos de emergência em Portugal.

The second number is the one that does the day-to-day work, and most arrivals have never heard of it. SNS 24, also called Linha Saúde 24, runs on 808 24 24 24.

The same gov.pt page describes what it is for: "A Linha Saúde 24 assegura triagem, aconselhamento e encaminhamento em situações de doença", the line provides triage, advice and referral. On availability, the page separates the two halves of the service: clinical contact is available around the clock, while administrative support runs from 8am to 10pm daily. On cost it states "O valor da chamada é o de uma chamada para a rede fixa", the call is charged at the rate of a call to a landline, which is a different arrangement from the free 112 line.

This is the number for the Sunday-night fever, the rash that appeared this morning, the medication question, the injury that probably needs looking at but is not an emergency. A nurse takes you through an algorithm and tells you what to do, which may be self-care at home, an appointment at your health centre, or going to hospital. Save it in your phone in your first week, next to 112.

Source: gov.pt, Contactos de emergência em Portugal, last updated 3 December 2024.

The split is between danger to life and everything else. If you are weighing it up in the moment, stop weighing and dial 112. Dispatchers would far rather turn out to something that turns out to be minor than arrive late to something that was not.

Two other numbers appear on the same gov.pt page and are worth knowing if you have children: 116 000 is the missing children line and 116 111 is the child support line. Both are described as available 24 hours a day, every day, and both are free.

Source: gov.pt, Contactos de emergência em Portugal.

Portugal removed user fees, the taxas moderadoras, from almost the whole of the public health service in 2022, and the one place they survive is the hospital emergency department.

The government's own announcement of the change, dated 5 May 2022, describes the exception in one line: fees end across the SNS, "mantendo-se apenas em serviço de atendimento de urgência hospitalar, exceto quando exista referenciação prévia pelo SNS ou admissão a internamento através da urgência". Remaining only in hospital emergency attendance, except where there is prior referral by the SNS or admission to inpatient care through the emergency department. The same announcement dates the change from the following June, without naming the instrument.

The instrument is on the public record. The Diário da República publication, read on 8 August 2026, is Decreto-Lei n.º 37/2022 of 27 May 2022, and its operative wording is tighter than the press release. It rewrote the charging article to read "As prestações de saúde, cujos encargos sejam suportados pelo orçamento do SNS, implicam o pagamento de taxas moderadoras apenas nos serviços de urgência hospitalar", that health services funded by the SNS budget carry a user fee only in hospital emergency services. It rewrote the dispensation article to read "a cobrança de taxas moderadoras é dispensada no atendimento em serviço de urgência nas situações em que há referenciação prévia pelo SNS ou nas situações das quais resulta a admissão a internamento através da urgência", that the fee is waived even in the emergency department where the SNS referred you or where the visit results in admission. Artigo 4.º sets the start date: "O presente decreto-lei produz efeitos a partir de 1 de junho de 2022".

Read carefully, that means turning up at an emergency department off your own bat is the one route that can still attract a charge, and being referred in through the SNS, or being admitted after you arrive, is not. gov.pt describes SNS 24 as an SNS service providing triage, advice and encaminhamento, referral. Whether a particular SNS 24 contact removes the fee in your specific case is not itemised on the pages read for this guide, so do not treat it as automatic (verify with ACSS or the hospital).

The amount is set by portaria rather than published on the ACSS overview page, which names Portaria n.º 64-C/2016 and Decreto-Lei n.º 113/2011 as the framework without displaying current values. Check the current figure with ACSS rather than relying on an older number: guidance written before June 2022, including some still in circulation, quotes fees that the 2022 law removed.

Sources: República Portuguesa, Taxas moderadoras acabam em todo o SNS exceto em urgência hospitalar, Diário da República, Decreto-Lei n.º 37/2022 de 27 de maio and ACSS, Taxas Moderadoras.

Two questions come up constantly from American and British families, and honesty is more useful here than a confident guess.

Will the operator speak English? The gov.pt emergency contacts page, last updated 3 December 2024, sets out the numbers, hours and call costs and says nothing about which languages 112 or SNS 24 operators handle. INEM's site was not reachable to the automated checks made for this guide on 8 August 2026. So the position is that this is not stated on the official pages read here (verify with INEM). Practical hedge in the meantime: have your address written down in Portuguese and stuck to the fridge, including the freguesia and the door and floor number, and hand the phone to a neighbour if the call is going badly.

Does the ambulance cost anything? The gov.pt page lists the emergency numbers but does not set out what emergency transport is charged at, and INEM, which operates the service, was not reachable for this guide. No figure is given here for that reason (verify with INEM). What the official record does say is the separate point above: the surviving user fee attaches to unreferred hospital emergency attendance, and not where the visit leads to admission.

Nothing in either gap should change what you do. Call 112 for an emergency. Portugal's hospitals treat first and settle the paperwork afterwards.

Source: gov.pt, Contactos de emergência em Portugal.

New arrivals often assume that once they have a número de utente, the SNS number, the money question is settled. The government's own service record says otherwise, and it is worth quoting because it is unusually blunt.

The gov.pt service page for requesting the número de utente, last updated 3 December 2024, states that the number is free and is assigned automatically the first time you present at a public health unit. It then states: "A atribuição do número de utente de saúde não garante a cobertura das despesas dos cuidados de saúde pelo SNS." Being assigned a patient number does not guarantee that the SNS covers the cost of your care. For that, the same page says the registration record must also carry an identification document, a Portuguese NIF, a complete address in Portugal, and a residence authorisation that is valid.

For a family that has just landed, those four items rarely all exist in week one. The residence authorisation in particular can sit in a queue while everyday life carries on, and an emergency does not wait for a document to be issued.

That is the window private medical cover is arranged for. A policy taken for a visa application or for a first year in Portugal is designed to handle treatment while the SNS registration record is being completed, and what it pays on any given claim is whatever the policy wording says. Two things to look for in the wording rather than the summary: whether emergency treatment and emergency transport are handled directly with the provider or reimbursed to you after you pay, and how the plan treats a hospital admission that follows an emergency attendance. Ask for the itemised invoice every time, whatever cover you hold, because no claim goes anywhere without it.

Source: gov.pt, Pedir o número de utente do SNS.