The Portuguese National Health System is composed of all public entities offering health services. There has been a successive increase in expenditure in recent years due to various factors that have contributed to a high degree of uncertainty about the evolution of operating costs in Public Business Hospitals. This research's main objective is to study the relationship between operational costs and waiting times as well as costs with healthcare professionals and waiting times in both external consultations and hospital surgeries. Furthermore, we will empirically assess the presence of U-shaped behaviour in both of these two relationships. We have included a sample of 38 hospitals considered in the Portuguese National Health System. We also included, in our analysis, five groups of public business hospitals, according to the Administrative Central Agency of Portugal's Health Service, considering the period between January 2015 and December 2019. To validate the two relationships proposed, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag panel model was used. This study highlights that longer waiting times for external consultation and surgery significantly affect hospital costs and suggest that longer waiting times do not merely increase absence rates. The study also proves that there are long-term effects that last beyond the short-term waiting period.

葡萄牙国家卫生系统由提供卫生服务的所有公共实体组成。近年来，由于各种因素导致公立医院运营成本演变的高度不确定性，支出连续增加。本研究的主要目的是研究运营成本与等待时间以及医疗保健专业人员的成本与外部咨询和医院手术的等待时间之间的关系。此外，我们将凭经验评估这两种关系中 U 形行为的存在。我们纳入了葡萄牙国家卫生系统中考虑的 38 家医院的样本。在我们的分析中，我们还包括了五组公立医院，根据葡萄牙卫生服务行政中央机构的说法，考虑到 2015 年 1 月至 2019 年 12 月之间的时期。为了验证所提出的两种关系，使用了自回归分布式滞后面板模型。该研究强调，外部咨询和手术的更长等待时间显着影响了医院成本，并表明更长的等待时间不仅会增加缺勤率。该研究还证明，存在超过短期等待期的长期影响。该研究强调，外部咨询和手术的更长等待时间显着影响了医院成本，并表明更长的等待时间不仅会增加缺勤率。该研究还证明，存在超过短期等待期的长期影响。该研究强调，外部咨询和手术的更长等待时间显着影响了医院成本，并表明更长的等待时间不仅会增加缺勤率。该研究还证明，存在超过短期等待期的长期影响。