When you need hospital treatment, you are referred by both your GP and a specialist. Admission to hospital can be:
1. Planned. On the basis of a referral issued by a doctor. The original of the referral must be delivered to the hospital within 14 working days of being added to the waiting list. The referral can be delivered: in person, by a third party or sent by post. An e-referral does not need to be delivered. The hospital will see it automatically. Sending patients who already have a referral to the hospital to register again, this time at a hospital outpatient clinic and obtain another referral to the hospital there, has no legal basis.
2. Emergency. In cases of sudden deterioration of health, without the need for a referral. Admission to hospital must take place immediately in order to save your life and health. Sometimes it is not possible for a hospital to do this because, for example, it does not have the necessary equipment or there is no department within its structure to deal with a particular health problem. It is then obliged to provide you with medical transport to the appropriate hospital. If it is not possible to admit you to hospital on the day you apply, you will be placed on a waiting list. If your condition deteriorates and you need to be treated earlier (than on the agreed date), a new hospital admission date is set.
A patient who has been admitted to a hospital ward will be treated to the extent that is based on an assessment of his or her condition and medical indications. During treatment, the hospital is obliged to provide free diagnostic tests, medicines and medical devices and aids. At the end of your hospital treatment and if you are assisted in a hospital emergency department or emergency room, according to your state of health, you will receive: - an information sheet - referrals for services recommended in the information sheet - prescriptions for medicines, foodstuffs for special nutritional use and medical devices - orders for medical devices recommended in the information sheet - orders for sanitary transport or transport in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
Source: www.gov.pl/web/rpp