Almost a million patients are waiting for urgent tests as queues grow after NFZ limits return

In the second quarter of 2026, the number of patients waiting for urgent services rose by 62.8 thousand compared with the first quarter, to 980 thousand. That is 180 thousand more than a year earlier, according to an unpublished National Health Fund (NFZ) report seen by Rzeczpospolita.

Queues for diagnostics are growing fastest. 145.3 thousand people were waiting for an urgent MRI, 35 thousand more than a quarter earlier. The median wait rose from 29 to 33 days. 65.8 thousand people were waiting for an urgent CT scan, almost half as many again as a year earlier. Urgent gastroscopy: 42.9 thousand people, up 26%. Colonoscopy: 70.4 thousand, up 20%.

From 1 April, the NFZ partly reinstated limits on these tests. Services above the limit are paid at 50–60% of their value, and the settlement is made only after the end of the year.

A former deputy health minister, now director of a hospital in Kielce, believes that the change in funding and the limits introduced during the year with retroactive effect may lead to more deaths in the future, including premature ones. A specialist oncology resident notes that hospitals are cutting the number of tests because they receive only part of the payment, and late.