Published January 2026

Private or public, it is the general opinion between my female peers & I that the medical culture here is still largely old-fashioned when it comes to women’s health, no matter if your doctor is male or female.

Specific pain & symtoms are still being dismissed as general stress. Menopause care is antiquated, with misdiagnosis of depression/anxiety and most annoyingly, a real reluctance to prescribe HRT as if it’s still the 90’s.

No matter your gender or situation, follow-up and aftercare doesn’t seem to have much importance. I’ve witnessed several examples of abysmal post-surgical aftercare.

And of course, the language barrier. I in no way expect medical proffesionals to speak my language. I do expect a doctor who has registered themselves in the system as an English speaker, to be at a higher level of fluency than general pleasantries. The nuance needed for medical explanations and diagnosies can be lacking with anyone who is not truly fluent.

It’s not all doom & gloom. I should be clear I have also had great doctors and treatment in Lisbon for which I am grateful.

I’m not trying to be negative but I wanted to be specific about some hurdles you may come across so that I may caringly say this: I encourage you to take some ownus back and be proactive in advocating for yourself.

If you already have a trustworthy doctor, I’d love to hear from you.

You will most likely have private health insurance as it is required for your residence visa. Regardless of where you go, an appointment should cost somewhere around €100, but with your insurance this will be greatly reduced. Depending on where you are from, this is may already be totally normal. For my American friends it has been a shock how much you get back and how easy it is.

For a general appointment you can go to your closest medical clinic if you wish. They are all over Lisbon. However newbie Besties might find this daunting, especially with the language barrier as these have traditionally serviced their local neighborhood for years. (I did, however, have a wonderful doc until he retired, who spoke fluent English & French, so do check the one nearest to you as it may be more convenient.) You can ask at your local pharmacy for a nearby doctor if you feel unsure.

With that in mind, below are four options for the easiest and most trustworthy ways to go about a general doctor’s appointment in the private sector. Don’t forget to take your passport as ID if you don’t have your residence card yet.

CUF Tejo

Website

Book an Apointment

Location

It may be reassuring to know as well as general appointments, I also had emergency care after a close call with a [nearly] broken ankle at CUF and was treated very well. Facilities are new and modern, reception staff in emergency, general and any floor I’ve visited have been great.

My real-life bestie had emergency appendix surgery at Luz and it went brilliantly. I visited him there, it’s also modern and new. General reception staff were great, floor staff less so. His provided lunch was a full meal including a whole grilled fish!

Bestie Note: There is another private hospital group that google will give you called Lusíadas. My husband had knee surgery at the “flagship” Amadora hospital and I do not recommend them. Everything is shockingly outdated, both technologically (not once did they use a computer, just paper and a highlighter) and physically (mutlipe tiles in the bathroom were broken. There are suitcases lining the halls, that turned out to be where they store patient’s personal belongings). The one person who had decent English was a rude nurse who flipped out when I asked where his crutches are...turns out it was supposed to be BYO crutches and nobody told us.

I was given crutches for my ankle at CUF without hesitation. So no, not all private hospitals are equal.

This is why you can’t always trust google & AI for important stuff!

TejoMed

Here’s what I learnt from my call with Zinnia from TejoMed :

• You pay an annual fee to be a member of the clinic. This gets you a dedicated doctor. So you can see the same one whenever you wish who you can build a medical relationship with, rather than being a number.

• The doctor’s patient load is well managed, meaning access to them is no later than a next day appointment. Urgent access is 24/7.  

• Their limited patient load allows them to focus on follow up and aftercare.

• All new members get a full checkup including bloodwork etc so the doctor can prescribe any needed preventative or corrective measures. Proactive care, not just reactive, which is very different to the sytem as it currently is.

• There is a strong focus on women’s health. There is a clear gap in the market for this and Zinnia even brought up menopause management and prescibing HRT, competletely unprompted by me.

The fees for 2026 will be €375 a quarter (less if you pay one annual sum, which works out a bit more than €100 a month). Children are half price and 10% off for a couple. All doctors appointments and any communications are covered in that. The only thing that isn’t is if you need anything done outside of the clinic, like an MRI (which your insurance should cover anyway).

Remember I do this all for free, this is not a paid ad and I’m not here to sell you anything. Zinnia was lovely without giving me some hard sell speil, which would have sent me running. Honestly, if I had that money spare right now I would probably jump on this. They seem to be addressing all my gripes with the medical system here.

Bestie Note: I queried her on the overly positive google reviews cause I’m a journalist dontcha know (I am not), to which she laughed and said they’re usually from people who’ve come to them after a having a terrible experience elsewhere.

Av. Miguel Bombarda 133A, Saldanha | Website