Wojciech Konieczny: Central e-registration system will help fight queues and non-cancellation of appointments

One of the things patients complain about most strongly is the queues to see specialists. On the other hand, they dramatically often cancel appointments they won't attend. This is the case, for example, with orthopedists, whose queues are among the longest. Patients are unlikely to be penalized for not canceling appointments. So how could central e-registration help solve this problem?

A major inconvenience for patients who do not cancel appointments may be the possibility we are considering of moving them to the end of the queue. This is already sometimes used, although of course the patient's condition must be taken into account.

There are specialties where patient reporting is better and others where it is worse. However, we are of the opinion that the fact that there will be a single e-registration system will help combat this phenomenon. However, it must be a universal solution, and this requires the inclusion of IT-excluded people. A component of the system will be to remind people of upcoming appointments by sending messages. Clinics today deal with the phenomenon of missed appointments, for example, in such a way that they put two more people in the queue for the day.

And when is this system likely to take off?

This will be piloted for sure in the coming months. The e-Health Center and the relevant units of the Health Ministry are in the process of completing it. The thing is to introduce this effectively so that what happened with electric death cards is not repeated. We can't afford to introduce something that will immediately have to be withdrawn from. The process will take as long as it needs to, but it is nearing completion.