“The blame for people excessively resorting to A&E is normally given to the lack of family doctors, but that is a paradox because Portugal is one of the European countries with a greater ratio of family doctors per thousand inhabitants," the group said in a statement.

Lack of access to doctors also does not appear to be a factor that could justify the phenomenon, given that the regions with more health centres do not show fewer admissions in A&E.

“One can conclude that one of the causes is the lack of capacity to resolve [problems] in primary care," the society said, recalling that patients seek out hospitals because they offer exams and specialists, are open 24 hours a days, and are "more trusted".

The group's president, Luís Campos, is quoted in the statement as saying that hospitals must take "some share of responsibility" for the situation, because "they could create more alternatives for non-urgent acute patients” within hospitals themselves.

Campos suggests that more such alternatives are created in hospitals, as well as increasing the capacity of primary healthcare.