Hospital de Santa Maria Lisbon Careers, Salaries & Jobs

Unidade Local de Saúde Santa Maria (ULSSM) is a public health unit of Portugal's National Health Service (SNS) in Lisbon. It runs the Hospital de Santa Maria and succeeds the former Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, whose recognitions its website still lists.

Its head office is at the Hospital de Santa Maria on Avenida Professor Egas Moniz.

ULSSM says it serves more than 350,000 users and has about 2,300 nurses. It is part of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML), whose ethics committee it hosts.

Its predecessor was recognised by the Ministry of Health as a national reference centre in 17 areas and by the European Union as a member of 10 European Reference Networks. Reference areas listed on ULSSM's site include congenital heart disease, ECMO, refractory epilepsy, cystic fibrosis, paediatric oncology, sarcomas and adult and paediatric kidney transplantation.

For an internationally trained professional, ULSSM is a large public employer that publishes its competitions and accepts spontaneous applications online for each career. You must be registered with the relevant Portuguese professional order first, which means Portuguese at B2 for doctors and C1 for nurses.

Run by

Unidade Local de Saúde Santa Maria, E.P.E., part of Portugal's National Health Service (SNS)

Leadership

• Carlos José das Neves Martins, Presidente do Conselho de Administração (Chair of the Board of Directors)
• Ana Isabel Gouveia Costa Fonseca Lopes, Vogal Executiva e Diretora Clínica para a área dos Cuidados de Saúde Hospitalares (Executive Board Member, Clinical Director for Hospital Care)
• Carla Cristina de Matos Apolinário Martins Ribeiro, Vogal Executiva e Enfermeira Diretora (Executive Board Member, Nursing Director)

Accreditations

• Recognised by the Ministry of Health as a national reference centre in 17 areas (recognition held by its predecessor, Centro Hospitalar Universitário Lisboa Norte, and listed on ULSSM's site)
• Member of 10 European Reference Networks (ERN), as listed on ULSSM's site

Switchboard

+351 217 805 000

• Congenital and structural heart disease

  Recognised reference centre for congenital heart disease and for structural interventional cardiology.

• ECMO and intensive care

  Reference centre for ECMO within urgent and intensive medicine; ULSSM also takes spontaneous applications for intensive care nursing.

• Neurosciences

  Reference centres for refractory epilepsy, familial amyloid polyneuropathy and interventional neuroradiology in cerebrovascular disease.

• Oncology

  Reference centres for oesophageal, rectal and hepatobiliary-pancreatic cancer, soft tissue and bone sarcomas, and paediatric oncology.

• Kidney transplantation

  Reference centres for adult and paediatric kidney transplantation.

• Cystic fibrosis and metabolic disease

  Reference centres for cystic fibrosis, inherited metabolic diseases and congenital coagulopathies.

• ULSSM does not describe an international recruitment programme, visa sponsorship or relocation support. Its recruitment page invites spontaneous applications for each career: doctors, nurses, senior technicians, diagnostic and therapeutic technicians, pharmacists and others.
• The nurses' spontaneous application form asks for a CV, your degree certificate with final grade, an up-to-date professional card (cédula profissional) issued by the Ordem dos Enfermeiros, a statement of professional experience and confirmation that you can work shifts. In practice this means you must already be registered with the Ordem before applying.
• Permanent posts are filled through public competitions (procedimentos concursais). For doctors, ULSSM publishes competitions for the category of assistente (specialist) in the hospital medical career; in 2026 these included anaesthesiology, thoracic surgery and endocrinology. Applications are sent by email or delivered to the HR department at Hospital de Santa Maria by the deadline in the notice.
• ULSSM runs a nursing recruitment page with events and staff testimonies, and holds competitions to create recruitment reserves for specialist nurses, such as medical-surgical and rehabilitation nursing.

• Doctors: a foreign medical degree from outside the EU must be recognised through a Portuguese public medical school (via DGES), which for medicine includes the CEMP recognition exam. You then register with the Ordem dos Médicos, starting without autonomy under supervision. Specialist posts (assistente) need registration in the relevant college of specialty.

• Doctors' Portuguese: the Ordem dos Médicos requires a pass in its Prova de Comunicação Médica, aligned with B2, or a B2 certificate from a certified Portuguese body, unless your medical course was taught in Portuguese.

• Nurses: register with the Ordem dos Enfermeiros, whose Regulation 371/2025 requires Portuguese at C1, shown by a certificate or by passing its language communication test. Non-EU nursing degrees also need recognition through a Portuguese institution.

• Residence visa: non-EU nationals need a residence visa for work, for example for subordinate or highly qualified work or an EU Blue Card, and for a regulated profession the consulate asks for proof of professional registration where applicable.

1. 1

   Get your degree recognised

   Apply through DGES to a Portuguese public university or nursing school. Doctors sit the CEMP recognition exam, held once a year.
2. 2

   Reach the Portuguese level your order requires

   B2 for doctors (the Ordem dos Médicos communication test or a B2 certificate) and C1 for nurses.
3. 3

   Register with your professional order

   Obtain your professional card from the Ordem dos Médicos or the Ordem dos Enfermeiros. ULSSM asks nurses for an up-to-date card when they apply.
4. 4

   Send a spontaneous application

   Use the form for your career on the ULSSM recruitment page, attaching your CV, degree certificate and professional card as PDFs.
5. 5

   Watch for public competitions

   ULSSM publishes competitions on its recruitment pages with the notice, evaluation grid and deadlines; apply by email or in person as each notice states.
6. 6

   Apply for your residence visa

   With a job offer, non-EU nationals apply at a Portuguese consulate for a residence visa for work, then for a residence permit with AIMA.