If care provided within primary healthcare is not sufficient, there is a possibility of getting an appointment with a specialist within specialist outpatient care. To see some specialists, a referral from primary healthcare physician is required.
In most cases in order to get an appointment with a specialist, a referral issued by primary healthcare physician is necessary.
Specialist medical advice – what to expect?
The physician issuing a referral to a specialist can state that the patient needs an appointment at home. When necessary, such a need can be expressed by the patient or his/her guardian. In medically justified cases, specialist doctor will examine the patient at home.
During the appointment a specialist doctor provides the patient with an opinion on his/her health condition, gives a presumptive diagnosis or identification of the disease and decides about the subsequent course of treatment.
It may turn out that one consultation is insufficient and the patient requires permanent treatment. For further appointments with the specialist in charge of the patient’s treatment no referral from a primary healthcare physician is needed.
The specialist doctor should inform the referring physician or primary healthcare physician in writing on the diagnosis, treatment, the course of the disease, prognoses, prescribed medications and their dosage, and also the planned check-up examinations. The patient, after receiving such a written statement, should give it to his/her primary healthcare physician or the one who has referred him/her for specialist treatment.
Specialist doctors can also refer the patient to other specialist or, when the treatment so requires, issue a referral to a hospital.
Referrals not needed to see some specialists
In emergency situations and in order to get an appointment with a gynaecologist, dentist, dermatologist, venereologist, oncologist, ophthalmologist and psychiatrist referrals from primary healthcare physicians are not necessary.
Such referrals are also not needed by persons with tuberculosis, HIV, and also people addicted to alcohol, intoxicants and psychotropic drugs - within detoxification treatment.
The group of patients who don’t need referrals also includes war and military disabled persons, victimised persons, war veterans or visually impaired civilian victims of military operations. Moreover, the group includes the authorised injured soldiers, military workers or veterans if the treatment concerns injuries sustained or diseases contracted during overseas missions.
Patients’ rights are worth remembering
After obtaining the referral, you should go to the reception desk of the selected outpatient care centre where the given specialist is available and make an appointment for a specific date. Patients can also register over the phone or through their relatives or friends.
It is worth remembering that patients have the right to make an appointment with a specialist anytime during the working hours of the reception desk. It is illegal for out-patient care centres to specify only selected days when registration for specialist appointments is available.
When a patient undergoes permanent specialist treatment, the doctor should set the date of the next appointment.
Patients have to wait for a specialist appointment from a few days to several months, depending on the doctor’s specialisation and the region.
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