2025-09-12
Although one of the goals of the Advance Patient Registration System is to reduce queues to see doctors, unfortunately, healthcare institutions and patients do not use it enough. Not all available appointment times are published in the system, and not all waiting lists are registered. This means that residents lose the opportunity to see a doctor more quickly or conveniently, and conditions for a more even flow of patients are not created. These results are revealed in the National Audit Office's assessment Reducing waiting queues for personal healthcare services.
"The Advance Patient Registration System is not working as it should. It is necessary to ensure that it is convenient to schedule visits to doctors, and there should be a wider choice of available appointments. This would save time for both patients and specialists. Today, what is lacking in queue management is not technology, but openness and the willingness to use it effectively," says Auditor General Irena Segalovičienė.
Auditors note that the Advance Patient Registration Information System (IPR IS) (https://ipr.esveikata.lt/) has recently been used by an increasing number of people. Unfortunately, it has not yet become a widely used tool. Only about 7-8% of patients choose to use it (according to the Ministry of Health calculations, based on the times visible to patients in the system, 13-16%). Appointments with doctors are still most often made by telephone (42% of respondents). This method is more common among rural residents. According to the survey, 51% of rural residents and 37% of urban residents always choose to register by phone.
Older people do not use the system due to a lack of computer literacy skills and lack of internet access. Younger survey participants indicate that it is easier and more convenient to register for healthcare services by phone or at the reception desk. They also note that using the system takes too much time and the access to it is complicated.
Another problem is that this system only shows residents about half of the available appointment times, even though healthcare institutions are required to publish 4-month work schedules and make 80% of their appointment times available to patients. Currently, 48% of primary care and 52% of specialized healthcare appointment times are available. Back in 2020, the Special Investigation Service noted that not showing all available appointments could give the false impression that there are none. This could encourage patients to choose paid services even in cases where free services are available. A survey of healthcare institutions shows that the situation identified five years ago has not yet been resolved. More than half of the healthcare institutions surveyed, which publish available appointment times both in the Advance Patient Registration system and in their own systems, show different percentages of available appointments.
If a healthcare institution cannot offer an available appointment time, it must add the patient to the waiting list. This list must be created in the Advance Patient Registration System. It is also important that healthcare institutions allow patients to register for the waiting list themselves. Unfortunately, only 45% of the institutions surveyed have such lists, but almost half of them fill them in their internal systems. Only 10% of institutions do this in the Advance Patient Registration System, and only 3.5% of institutions have patients registered on their lists themselves.
Healthcare institutions indicate that it is more convenient and faster to create waiting lists in internal systems or documents than using the IPR IS. It is claimed that the Advance Patient Registration System often malfunctions, patients have to call due to inaccurate registrations, etc.
For more information on the results of the assessment Reducing waiting queues for personal healthcare services, please click here.
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