July brings Hungary the first online national waiting list registration system, a system that is meant to be easy to keep track of, highlighting the number of people waiting for various operations throughout the country.Â
Zsolt Kiss, the National Health Insurance Fund Strategic Head of the Division of MTI, stated that the new system is a key element for patient choice, because the patient will always follow the money. For example, by accessing the national register and the NHS, a patient can see the institutions in which a certain procedure in made, and can also see the number of patients in front of him waiting for the same procedure. This knowledge will give the patient the capacity to choose the institution.
As explained, the National Health Insurance Fund managed by the new system will be able to keep track of the waiting lists, of the needed treatments and costs of treatments, for example number of painkillers needed for each patient, what kind of care for chronic treatment was received, how many sick days, etc.
The totals, together with the surgery itself provide a clearer image of what the total necessary costs will be.
Zsolt Kiss emphasized that for example in the case of spinal surgery where the waiting list is for years, the NHS will redirect its capacity to eliminate these disparities. Meanwhile the basic rules do not change, said the Head of Department.
All in all the leading institutions are therefore pleased with the new concept of a more transparent system, with rules that disable doctors to forward some patients up the list without purely technical reasons.
The new registration system for the NHS is based on the principle of responsible management of the waiting lists. Zsolt Kiss emphasized that the hospital information system is already there, it just needs to be launched on a nation-wide basis in order to fill out the lists.
