1.4 million lost appointments. NHF and Patient Ombudsman appeal: cancel, don't block

The #Cancel #NotCancel campaign, launched by CMP Medical Center in 2022, focuses on the problem of missed appointments with specialists. According to data from the National Health Fund for 2024, about 1.4 million appointments were not canceled - and that was in only 40 monitored areas. This is one of the factors that lengthens queues to specialists and blocks accessibility. - By the middle of 2025, patients have not canceled 773,000," said NFZ President Filip Nowak at Wednesday's conference inaugurating the next edition of the campaign. - This means 773 thousand people who could have benefited from the advice of a specialist, but unfortunately failed to do so. A missed appointment is a lost opportunity to help another patient. On the other hand, it's a huge responsibility on the part of medical facilities, which should provide an effective channel of communication with the patient and make it possible to cancel the appointment.

- Non-cancellation of appointments is a problem that affects us all," stressed Patient Ombudsman Bartlomiej Chmielowiec. - Each missed appointment is a lost opportunity for another patient who could have benefited from a doctor's help at that time. I am glad that more and more institutions and medical facilities are joining the campaign's activities. Only with a joint effort can we improve the availability of health services in Poland.

The MPC placed great emphasis on the responsibility of healthcare entities, which must provide patients with viable options for contacting them, so that cancelling an appointment is a simple action - only then can patients be expected to comply with appeals to release seats in cases where they themselves cannot use the appointment. - We support facilities in implementing a system for making and cancelling appointments, but it is up to facilities to diagnose the situation related to this area and implement adequate tools and multi-channel facilities for making appointments, he stressed.

In a systemic way, appointment cancellation is to be simplified by central e-registration. From January 2026, it will cover cardiology, breast cancer prevention and cervical cancer prevention. From July 1, 2026, the system will cover vascular diseases, infectious diseases, endocrinology, hepatology, immunology, cystic fibrosis, nephrology, neonatology, tuberculosis and lung diseases. The Health Ministry wants all outpatient specialty care services to appear in the central e-registration no later than December 31, 2029.

The bill, which is awaiting the president's signature, stipulates that appointments will be able to be signed up for through the Internet Patient Account or directly with the provider - in person, by phone or email. The system will remind patients of appointments and allow them to cancel them, which is expected to reduce the number of unused appointments. During the discussion, it was emphasized that sending notifications clearly increases the number of appointment cancellations, that is - this way is effective.