When the lights went out: impacts of the April 2025 Iberian blackout on the Portuguese National Health Service sovereignty - a reflection on national defence, health sovereignty, risk, and infrastructural dependency
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Goiana-Da-Silva, Francisco
Madureira-Fonseca, David
Tude Graça, Duarte
Moitinho de Almeida, Maria
Cabral, Miguel
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The April 2025 blackout in the Iberian Peninsula severely disrupted The Portuguese National Health Service (NHS). It led to failures for over eight hours in power supply, digital systems, telecommunications, and inter-institutional coordination. Hospitals operated on limited generator capacity, essential medical equipment was triaged, and digital health records became inaccessible. Cold storage failures endangered temperature-sensitive medicines, while emergency communications and transport systems were severely compromised. This perspective article based on first-hand experience and grey literature proposes a first rapid analyses on the blackout as through the World Health Organization’s Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management Framework. Advocating that health care resilience must then be acknowledged as a fundamental area of national security the article calls for regulatory improvement, decentralized energy solutions, digital redundancy, and integrated command structures linking health, civil protection, and defence sectors. It offers further insights into building anticipatory health systems capable of withstanding future complex disruptions.
Date Issued
2025-07-09
Date Acceptance
2025-06-24
Citation
Frontiers in Public Health, 2025, 13
ISSN
2296-2565
Publisher
Frontiers Media S.A.
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers in Public Health
Volume
13
Copyright Statement
© 2025 Goiana-da-Silva, Madureira-Fonseca, Tude Graça, Moitinho De Almeida, Cabral Pinho, Sá, Moreira, Cabral, Pereira, Nunes, Lourenço, Branco, Ashrafian, Araújo and Darzi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Identifier
10.3389/fpubh.2025.1630933
Subjects
health system resilience
emergency preparedness
infrastructure
energy blackout
extreme events
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 1630933