The “Recalibrate the Scales” platform challenges the Government to apply the National Obesity Prevention and Management Program, the creation of Multidisciplinary Teams and the reimbursement of medicines, warning that delays compromise the response to patients.
“Postponing these decisions compromises the ability of the health system to structure itself and respond adequately to the needs of people living with obesity”, warns the platform, a coalition led by the Portuguese Society for the Study of Obesity (SPEO) that brings together scientific societies and patient associations.
The platform will present this Tuesday, March 3, at the conference “Stop Obesity: if not now, when?”, which will take place in the Assembly of the Republic, 13 concrete recommendations, organized into four strategic areas: Prevention and healthy environments, Equitable access to treatment, Intelligent Organization of the System and Focus on results and combating stigma.
Speaking to the Lusa agency, the president of SPEO, José Silva Nunes, said that the platform recognizes that there has been “an advance in recent years in political commitment to solving the problem of obesity and commitment to finding solutions to the issue of obesity”, but warns that these measures have not yet come to fruition.
“We made great progress, but once again on paper, in November last year, when an order was issued creating the National Obesity Prevention and Management Program, at the headquarters of the State Department of Health, and the Integrated Care Path for People with Obesity was also published on the same day”, he recalled.
“Right now we have all the conditions to put it into practice, we have all the documents drawn up, we just need to implement them (…) to stop obesity”, he highlighted.
In this context, the platform will address three requests for “urgent action”, the first being the operationalization of the National Obesity Prevention and Management Program.
The second is to implement the creation of Multidisciplinary Obesity Teams in Local Health Units (ULS), essential for the effective implementation of the Integrated Care Path for People with Obesity.
“The reality is that at the moment in hospital healthcare and, above all, in primary healthcare, these teams do not exist”, lamented the specialist, warning of the need for human resources and incentives for the creation of teams with a doctor, nurse, psychologist, nutritionist, physical activity professional and social worker.
The last question concerns the publication of the ordinance that establishes the exceptional reimbursement regime for obesity medications.
The technical study requested from Infarmed to support this decision was completed and published in December 2025 and there is still no political decision.
Silva Nunes highlighted that most people who try to treat obesity in the long term cannot do so without pharmacological therapy.
But the medicines are expensive and are not reimbursed, and the majority of the Portuguese population does not have the economic means to purchase them, so there is “social discrimination”.
The specialist warned that “the old narrative that the treatment of obesity is to close your mouth and move more is completely outdated”, arguing that drugs are essential to prevent weight regain and allow therapeutic success.
Among the platform’s 13 recommendations are the creation of health-promoting urban and school environments, tax incentives for healthy habits, cardiometabolic screening protocols in primary care and mandatory training in integrated obesity management for health professionals.
Establishment of Multidisciplinary Teams and standardization of Integrated Responsibility Centers for surgical and non-surgical treatment, specific obesity programs in ULS and the creation of the National Obesity Observatory, monitoring policies, programs and results are other recommendations.
Currently, obesity affects around two million adults in Portugal, representing an estimated economic impact of 4.18 billion euros annually, “a value that will continue to increase drastically if a new intervention paradigm is not adopted”, warns the platform.
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