New system will prioritize children’s psychiatry and eye-care patients

Children seeking psychiatric and eye-care services will be prioritized according to medical urgency under a system to be tested from next year, LSM reported. The change is not expected to shorten waiting lists, and the plan also aims to involve more pediatricians in treatment.

Children’s Hospital and the Methodological Management Centre for Pediatrics will assess patients’ needs. A patient coordinator will work with a doctor to assign appointments according to a plan developed in advance, replacing the current single queue.

The system will have five priority groups. The urgent group will include children whose lives are at risk or whose illnesses are progressing rapidly. High priority will apply when delaying care could pose a significant risk to a child’s health or development. Standard priority will cover cases where a short delay is not expected to substantially worsen the prognosis. The remaining groups will be for planned assessments or preventive care, and for cases where intervention is not currently needed.

If a child’s condition worsens, the family doctor can ask for the priority level to be reassessed. Rimma Beļikova, head of the pediatrics division at the hospital’s Methodological Management Centre, said the change would mean that patients who need care most would be seen first, rather than reducing the length of the queues.

Family doctors can already use the hospital’s portal to request accelerated appointments for children with serious conditions with several specialists at Children’s Hospital.