The Number of People Who Failed to Attend Appointments and Examinations Is Alarming. The NFZ Appeals for Responsibility

According to data reported by medical facilities, during the first six months of this year, 4,224 patients failed to attend outpatient physiotherapy. A total of 2,097 people failed to attend their scheduled magnetic resonance imaging examination. Another 2,209 patients did not appear for computed tomography. A total of 2,581 patients failed to attend their cardiology appointments, while nearly 6,000 did not attend appointments with an orthopedist.

In total, more than 23,500 appointment and examination slots were wasted in Lower Silesia between January and June. This is definitely too many, but still 1,000 fewer than during the comparable period a year earlier. In the first half of 2023, nearly 24,500 appointment slots were wasted.

“Everyone loses when appointments are not cancelled: medical facilities, doctors, but above all patients. Every appointment that is not cancelled is someone’s wasted chance to receive faster specialist help and begin treatment. Therefore, if we know that we will not attend a scheduled appointment, let us make that slot available to another patient as soon as possible,” says Łukasz Sendecki, director of the Lower Silesian Provincial Branch of the NFZ.

An unforeseen situation, a change of plans or symptoms subsiding—various things can cause us not to attend a scheduled appointment or examination. An absence is not a problem as long as we inform the medical facility where we have the appointment in good time. When a facility knows that it has an available slot, it can offer it to the next person in line.

Patients also sometimes forget that if they fail to attend an appointment without informing the medical facility in advance, they will be removed from the waiting list. In practice, this means that if they still need the consultation or examination, they will automatically be placed at the end of the waiting list. Thus, they may end up harming themselves just as much.

SMS Reminder

Nationwide, almost 1.3 million appointments did not take place last year because patients failed to attend and did not cancel their appointments in advance. To reduce the scale of the problem, the National Health Fund sends patients reminder text messages. The messages are sent to first-time patients scheduled for 40 different services, including cardiology and orthopedics consultations, glaucoma surgeries, joint replacements, gastroscopy, colonoscopy, computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging. Every patient who provides their mobile phone number correctly during registration receives a reminder text message. The message contains information about the date and type of service, as well as the facility’s telephone number. If we cannot attend the appointment, we should call the number provided and cancel it.

I Cancel, I Don’t Block!

To draw attention to the problem of appointments that are not cancelled and its consequences, the National Health Fund joined the “I Cancel, I Don’t Block!” campaign. The campaign encourages patients to take greater responsibility for using healthcare services.