Nearly 300,000 missed doctor appointments in Warsaw in 2022

The city of Warsaw is launching a campaign named "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you", which is meant to raise awareness of the problem and scale of patients missing their doctor appointments. The campaign will last four weeks, during which information spots will be played in public transport vehicles.

According to the city hall, Warsaw clinics and hospitals recorded a total of 297,274 missed appointments booked under outpatient specialized care, dental treatment, psychiatric care or therapeutic rehabilitation. As a result, more than 35,000 available dates for consultations at hospital clinics were not used, whereas nearly 260,000 slots could have been used in many clinics across Warsaw.

"These shameful statistics can be changed - and in a very easy way. It is enough to call and cancel or reschedule the appointment," the city hall urged in a statement.

The phenomenon known as health debt has made the waiting time for doctor visits significantly longer. And this pertains not only to general practitioners, but also to specialist consultations, for instance in hospital clinics among others. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation dramatically.

"We want to make the people of Warsaw aware of how huge the scale is. 300,000 not cancelled visits is just data from our health care institutions for last year alone, that is from 9 city hospitals and the network of clinics. We hope, that thanks to the campaign and making the citizens aware of the huge scale of uncancelled visits, persons who can't make it to their appointments will cancel them, thus making the dates available to other patients," Deputy Mayor of Warsaw Renata Kaznowska said.