Will the pilot registration project become a reality?

An important right

Already now, if you are registering a specialist for a specialist in a few months’ consultation, you may not be registered with a particular doctor whose name you will find out when you find out, but find out your doctor’s office and doctor’s name.

Such changes are criticized.

Neringa Čiakienė, Director of Association for Oncology Patients (POLA), emphasized that the patient’s right to choose a medical facility and doctor for more than two decades has been enshrined for more than two decades.

« This right is very important to patients. It is very important that patients with long monitoring, registering, seeing a doctor who have begun treatment. The doctors themselves emphasize that it is important for quality of treatment and time.

Currently, in Lithuania you can choose which specialist to register for a specialist for consultation. « It is true that this is not true for everyone. Especially when there is a hurry when the patient is referring for the first time. For example, urgent consultation by a urologist, traumatologist or other specialist to wait for the shortest specialization to wait for the specialization.

She emphasized: It is important that the requirements of legal acts are not violated when making decisions. « When we hear that there will be a pilot project – one or the other – I do not understand that the ministry could implement a new requirement during a project, an initiative that would violate the law, » said POLA director.

The head of the Lithuanian Council of Patient Organizations Vida Augustinienė spoke about the fact that such changes may violate patients’ rights because it does not comply with the Law on Patient Rights and Health Rights, which provides that the patient has the right to choose both a medical institution and a doctor.

She rated the ministry’s initiative as an artificial referral to people with some doctors to make everyone busy.

Neringa Čiakienė / Photo by Personal Archive

How much do you wait?

The registration changes are initiated, as stated, to shorten the rows with the medical staff, to speed up the availability of treatment services. I think more patients register with the currently unpopular medical staff would shorten the queues.

According to a recent survey, POLA is 16 percent. It took less than a week from the suspicion of the diagnosis to the oncologist. Up to a month – 61 percent.

For more than a month (some – up to half a year), one fifth of the respondents were waiting. « There are times when an oncologist only comes after a year. Each such case is painful, but it is more signaling not about the system’s incapacity to accept, but about a long -thinking, false first hypothesis, when the patient was initially sent to other professionals rather than an oncologist, » said N. Čiakienė.

She said there were a number of stories where the patient’s health problems moved after he had only visited the fifth specialist in the field. « Finally, I found the one who understands my problem and solves it. And to play me again in the lottery, what will I get next time?

Finally, I found the one who understands my problem and solves it. And to gamble to the lottery again, what will I get next time? Unacceptable.

Free vouchers remain

N. Čiakienė noted the other aspect. It is important that the registration is equally transparent and general, regardless of how the patient registers. It is noticeable that the receptionist sees more opportunities when registering to the medical institution than the person himself tries to register by e -mail. health.

Medical institutions use different systems, different proportions, but each remains non -public free spaces for urgent cases, as well as for monitoring or continuous consultations, for example, cycles of chemotherapy a patient should not be able to bother and catch talons for another time.

The aim of the ministry is to open more times to register the four -month physician consultation times.

N. Čiakienė also mentioned that the transparency of registration is destroyed by the manifestations of fine corruption – a hurry to call someone and agree with someone.

« Some emphasize that medical services are free and still desired to choose a particular doctor. But in reality, there are no medical services in municipalities or public offices. Everyone working for them is paid for. There are free children and pensioners.

Criticizes: V. Augustinienė evaluates the initiative of SAM as an artificial referral of people to some doctors’ specialists so that everyone is busy. / I. Gelūnas / BNS Photo

Everyone has to know

The chairwoman of the Lithuanian Medical Movement, Auriuris Gerliakienė, also provided other registrations only to the doctor’s office, not the advantages of a particular physician.

« Every decision must be detailed and discussed. Every solution, no matter what, cannot be blunt and pushed by the bulldozer. Now, the details are going on, when, in what case it is appropriate, » said Gerliakienė.

In her opinion, if we speak that all patients go blind to all the medical staff, it is wrong.

« There are specific illnesses that need dispensation – long -term observation. People in this group would face major problems. However, the appointment of a blind to a specialist would protect doctors who are considered very good professionals, though others do not have a job at the time, » she said, explaining that it is artificial.

According to the interlocutor, the resource state has the system, but they are not used if there are many patients, even in simpler cases, those who only want to get to a particular physician.

The possibility of personalization should be maintained so that the patient can visit a particular doctor.

She also mentioned the tendency to get to the hospital bypassing Level II specialists and family doctors. He talked about cases where there are problems that a family doctor can solve, but the patient still goes to a top -notch specialist because he just wants it.

However, maybe some specialist about a particular, maybe rarer disease has more knowledge and experience in treating it than other professionals of the same field? « Everyone has to go deeper. For example, all cardiologists have to know certain things, but they know some procedures.

It takes differently

Not only the long -lasting patients of such doctors, but also the medical institutions themselves are confirmed that the queues with some popular, high -treatment physicians are long -term.

According to Elizabeth Trapenskė, the head of the LSMU Kaunas Hospital Consulting Medicine Center, the hospital experience shows that queues with some specific doctors specialists longer than three months, although waiting for the same service to another specialist for a couple of weeks.

« We believe that if patients were not registered with a specific physician specialist, but to obtain the service they need at the next free time, this decision would contribute to reducing waiting queues. We also support the ministry’s view that patients with chronic illness or long -term monitoring need to continue treatment with the same specialist. »

Auriuri Gerliakienė / Photo by Personal Archive

Will cancel if they do not work

« When it comes to the overall registration flow, we are talking about the need to get to the doctor as quickly as possible to patients and situations. Čelutkienė.

« In this case, it is important to get to a specialist who can provide the right help, not to wait for a particular doctor, when it is not yet clear on what basis the patient chooses a specific specialist, » she said.

According to the Vice -Minister, in cases where healthcare is provided to patients with chronic illnesses or some services have been provided for some time, medical institutions are advised to provide long -term monitoring services.

« When a doctor accepts the patient for long -term monitoring, he or she becomes responsible for the care of this patient for at least a few years. Then the doctor’s and his team’s business and the duty to arrange the registration so that the patient has either the phone or the agreed time, (…) When the next visit must take place, » said J. Čelutkienė.

« In principle, then you should not register through the general reception, » she added.

The ministry talked about the fact that some medical institutions will test the practice of registering patients not with a particular physician but at a specialist’s office in a particular field in early April.

This pilot project aims to make sure it will help reduce the queues and check the reaction of the population.

It is said that the idea will be canceled if it is excessive dissatisfaction.

The ability not to specify the doctor already formed

Julian Gališanskis, Advisor to the Communication Division of the Ministry of Health, did not specify the « Kaunas Day » of specific institutions where the pilot registration registration project will be carried out, but mentioned that all medical institutions have a month to not specify if it is unknown.

« As of April 15, medical institutions have been obliged to publish at least four months’ work schedules in the e -health registration system and at least 80 % of the visits time must be seen in patients. If the treatment facility is unable to plan which physician and when they work in two, three or four months. e.

He added that a lot of hope is made to announce four months of doctors. SAM hopes that this will « provide more choice and access to the doctor, as well as contribute to the transparency and shortening of the queues. »