Quality and Safety in Health Public Policies from April 25th to the end of the 20th century

Abstract

The Revolution of April 1974 began the period of democratization in Portugal. The Constitution of the Portuguese Republic (CRP), approved by the Constituent Assembly in 1976, established for the first time “The right to health protection, realized by the creation of a National Health Service…”, which came to fruition in 1979. The Ministry of Health it was only created in 1983. The Directorate-General for Health was abolished in 1984 and, again, created in 1993. The Basic Health Law, created in 1990, established for the first time, the protection of health from a perspective not only as a right, but also as a joint responsibility of citizens, society and the State, in freedom to seek and provide care. The beginning of the quality approach occurred with the organization of the International Seminar Évaluation des services de soins de santé primaires (1985) and the beginning of the history of quality, with quality assessment (1993). In the second half of the 90s, the Ministry of Health assumed quality as a priority. Quality, as a priority, as a strategic orientation, was framed in the First Health Strategy – “Health a Commitment” (1998-2002), thus defining a health quality policy for the first time. Despite the health quality responsibilities assigned to the Directorate-General for Health from 1993 and the established measures, the Health Quality Institute was created in 1999.