How to get to a doctor faster? I used this method myself and had an appointment the next day
Are you tired of waiting months to see a specialist? You can even have a free date the next day. All you need to do is check their availability via the National Health Fund search engine. Such quick deadlines were a huge surprise to me.
Long waits to see a specialist are a really serious problem in our country when it comes to the health care system. Patients often have to wait weeks, months, and sometimes even years to be able to get such a medical consultation. However, there are several ways to avoid such queues to the doctor. The following methods will be invaluable help in a situation when you really want help. I used one myself and surprisingly quickly got to see a specialist.
How to skip the queues to the doctor? The National Health Fund search engine will help
One of the best methods to bypass long queues to a specialist is to use the National Health Fund's Treatment Dates Guide. New free dates may appear there from day to day, for example due to a canceled visit. Just complete the appropriate fields in the search engine:
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what service you are looking for,
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in which voivodeship,
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in which city.
You can also use additional search options:
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what hospital/clinic,
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the exact place of provision of services,
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street.
When using such a guide, sometimes errors creep in and available dates are shown, but this is the situation valid a few days earlier. Therefore, you should be vigilant during such a search. Through the National Health Fund's Treatment Dates Guide You cannot book a doctor's consultation directly – you must personally call the selected clinic or hospital. If appointments with a doctor are long and you cannot wait, it is worth checking out facilities a little further away from your place of residence. There is no regionalization, so the patient can also make an appointment elsewhere.
How to get to a doctor faster? Medical category on referral
Each facility that has a contract with the National Health Fund is obliged to maintain a waiting list. If a given service cannot be provided on the day of notification, the facility must enter the patient on such a list and then set a specific date for a visit to a doctor, examination or procedure. There are two categories of patients: urgent and stable cases. Urgent cases are given priority over people who have come forward earlier but whose condition is stable. It is also worth checking who can benefit from out-of-turn health care services.
However, if a person is waiting for such an appointment, but their health condition is deteriorating – they should contact the clinic – the doctor may then decide to change the medical category and set an earlier date. Also remember to cancel your appointments if you cannot come to the doctor – otherwise you will block the place for another patient, but also lengthen the queues to specialists.
The Ministry of Health announces shorter queues for specialists
The Ministry of Health recently announced a new way of making appointments with a doctor: it will be faster and easier. The first such changes are scheduled to begin in mid-2024. For now, however, they will only apply to registration to certain specialists, and will be gradually expanded later.
“If a private facility allows you to book an appointment with a specialist by text message or e-mail, reminds you about it and allows you to easily cancel it, such a solution can and should be introduced in the public health care system. However, we must remember that it is more complicated than in the case of private entities, because the scope of activities of public entities is much wider than that of private clinics,” announced the Minister of Health, Izabela Leszczyna.
