Without referral to more specialists. Ministry of Health extends list by 3 positions

The Ministry of Health is expanding the list of specialists who do not require a referral
It will include: a psychologist, a sports medicine doctor and an optometrist.
The latter will also be able to refer you to an ophthalmologist.
The provisions introducing these changes were included in the draft bill reforming hospitals.

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Currently, without a referral you can go to:

psychiatrist
gynecologist and obstetrician
oncologist
venereologist
dentist.

Now, this list is set to expand. A referral will no longer be needed to use a psychologist's help.

The abolition of this requirement is supported by, among other things, the fact that a referral is no longer required to obtain a psychiatric consultation – as indicated in the justification for the draft amendment to the act on health care services financed from public funds and certain other acts. Its main goal is to reform hospitals, but it also includes provisions on referrals to specialists.

According to the project, referrals will not be needed to see a sports medicine doctor.

- The requirement for a referral to a sports medicine clinic has no substantive justification - the ministry assessed.

It will also not be required in the case of the new guaranteed service within the scope of outpatient specialist care, i.e. an optometrist’s consultation.

Here too, it was decided that the requirement for a referral from a health insurance physician was not justified. Moreover, the possibility of issuing a referral to an ophthalmologist, as part of outpatient specialist care, by an optometrist was introduced.

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Patients need provisions in controversial law

When could these changes come into effect? It's hard to say. Although the act itself is to be implemented 14 days after its announcement, its adoption may be delayed.

The planned hospital reform is controversial, and the project itself is being agreed upon for the third time. After two previous attempts that did not gain the support of the Council of Ministers, the head of the Ministry of Health, Izabela Leszczyna, announced a "third lap".

Deputy Minister of Health Jerzy Szafranowicz told Rynek Zdrowia that the project will be submitted to the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers this week. For now, however, it is not on the agenda for Thursday's meeting.

Izabela Leszczyna announced, in turn, that she "would like to go to the Sejm with this bill in March". However, in the parliament we hear that the date of starting work in the spring is practically unrealistic.

- After the presidential elections in May, not before - say MPs in the corridors.

The proposed changes include, among other things, the consolidation of clinics, which in practice may mean closing some hospitals and departments. In this situation, no one wants to take on such responsibility and it is difficult to achieve political consensus.