Over recent months the society assessed the capacity of public hospitals and concluded that 51.8% of Portugal does not have access to a rheumatology specialist because of a shortfall in the hospital network coverage.

The head of the society, Luís Cunha Miranda, stressed that there are only five hospitals in the national health service with a full range of specialists: Santa Maria, West Lisbon hospital centre, Garcia de Orta hospital, Ponte de Lima hospital and São João Hospital, in Porto.

Over 40% of public hospitals do not have a single specialist in rheumatology. This means that 5 million people, half of which have a rheumatic disease, do not have access to a specialist in the national health service.

According to the society, public hospitals lack at least 80 specialists to cover the needs of the population.

Miranda noted that 56% of the Portuguese population have rheumatic complaints, and it is estimated that 35% of patients do not know they have a rheumatic disease.

He also added that rheumatic diseases have a huge social and economic impact. In terms of early retirement, rheumatic diseases cost the state more than €900 million per year, which means 0.5% of the country's GDP.

Absenteeism caused by rheumatic diseases results in losses of about €200 million per year.