More than 13,300 patients are waiting for surgery in the Azores, according to data from the Regional Health Directorate for November, which points to a 12.1% increase in the waiting list compared to the same period last year.

“In November 2025, a total of 13,352 patients were waiting on the LIC [surgery waiting list], which corresponds to an increase of 0.7% (92 more patients) compared to the previous month. Compared to the same month last year, there was an increase of 12.1% (1,439 more patients),” according to the monthly newsletter of the Central Unit for the Management of Patients Registered for Surgery in the Azores, available on the Regional Health Directorate’s website.

Since May 2023, the number of people waiting for surgery in the Azores has been increasing compared to the same period last year. The Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo (HDES) in Ponta Delgada had the most patients waiting for surgery (8,761) at the end of November. Affected by a fire in May 2024, the largest hospital in the region recorded the largest year-on-year increase in the surgical waiting list, with an additional 1,166 patients registered (15.4%).

The Horta Hospital (HH), with 1,429 registered patients, had 110 more patients waiting (8.3%) than in November 2024, while Hospital de Santo Espírito da Ilha Terceira (HSEIT) had 3,162 patients registered, 163 (5.4%) more than in the same period last year. Compared to the previous month, the waiting list at HH fell by 1% (14 fewer registrations), while at HDES it increased by 1% (84 more) and at HSEIT by 0.7% (22 more). Some patients are waiting for more than one surgery, so the number of surgical proposals on the waiting list is higher. At the end of November, it reached 14,805, 85 (0.6%) more than in October and 1,439 (12.6%) more than in the same period last year.

Surgical output in the Azores this month increased compared to the same period last year, despite falling compared to the previous month. According to the report, 762 surgeries were performed, 42 (5.8%) more than in November 2024, but 30 (3.8%) fewer than in October. Nearly half of the surgeries were performed at the Ponta Delgada hospital (379), which recorded a year-on-year increase in surgical production of 29.8%. At the Terceira hospital, 274 operations were performed, 4.2% less than in November 2024, and at the Horta hospital, 109 operations were performed, 23.2% less.

According to the Regional Secretariat for Health and Social Security, the bulletin only presents the figures for increased production under the CIRURGE program, not counting surgeries performed during the normal period in hospitals. At the end of November, Azoreans waited an average of 476 days (over a year and three months) for surgery, 31 days more than in the same month in 2024. At the Ponta Delgada hospital, the average waiting time was 511 days (39 more), at the Terceira hospital 421 days (five less), and at the Horta hospital 389 days (60 more). In all three health facilities, the average waiting time exceeded the regulated maximum guaranteed response times (TMRG), which stipulate that a surgery with normal priority should be performed within a maximum of 270 days.

Of the surgeries performed in November in the Azores, about half (52.2%) occurred within the TMRG, 2.2 percentage points more than in the same period last year (50%). This month, 1,044 new surgical proposals were admitted to the three hospitals in the region, 81 (7.2%) fewer than in October and 26 (2.6%) more than in November 2024. There were also 224 surgery cancellations, representing a decrease of 18.5% compared to the previous month and 5.9% compared to the same period last year.

In Diário Insular, José Lourenço, director.

Translated into English as a community outreach program by the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL), in collaboration with Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno. PBBI thanks Luso Financial for sponsoring NOVIDADES.