Specialist services free of charge for children

The abolition of the obligation to refer applies only to specialist doctors and what is attached to them, e.g. research. The abolition of the system of referral for children will take effect on 1 July. Children who do not have a referral will no longer have to pay 30% of the bill. However, requests must continue to be submitted to physical therapists and speech therapists.

Alma says it is clear that the current system of referrals for children has not served that purpose or delivered the results that were intended. Today, the system of referrals leads to children of poor parents who need referrals for financial reasons, waiting in many cases longer for services than children of parents who have financial means to take their children to specialists without referral and to pay for the service. Alma emphasises that health care can solve most of the problems of those who seek it. She therefore encourages parents to continue to use the health care for their children.

Margrét Ólafía Tómasdóttir, chair of the Icelandic Association of General Practitioners, says she is very pleased with the minister’s decision and the fact that the requests of GPs to improve efficiency in the healthcare system and to improve health care services by reducing unnecessary paperwork have been listened to.

The Minister of Health will appoint a working group to develop proposals for the future of health care by removing the obligation to refer.