If you are registered as a resident in Portugal, then you are eligible for a Número Utente, which gives you access to all public health services and should be shown when visiting the health centre, for diagnostic tests and therapy, and also used at the pharmacy when purchasing prescription medications.
In Estremoz, getting your Número Utente it is a pretty straight-forward procedure. You simply go to the Centro de Saude from 9:00 to 13:00hrs and 14:00 to 17:30hrs, Monday to Friday, with the required documentation.
These include:
- Your original residence certificate (CRUE)
- Your Nº Contribuinte (NIF) – showing your home address
- Your Passport – we took ours just in case but did not need them…
At the Estremoz health centre, the registration is made at the nurse’s station, which is through the door on the side and turn right.
Registration was easy and we soon had our numbers, however, we were not assigned a family doctor. We were told that during Covid there is only one doctor on duty covering the whole of Estremoz, and he is almost never there – so getting an appointment with him is impossible at the moment.
Hopefully this situation will change soon as we come out of the third wave of the pandemic, but in the meantime, we requested an appointment and are waiting to be called…
