Inpatient care requires a patient’s hospitalization. A person may receive scheduled State-paid inpatient care services, as determined by the law.
To receive inpatient care services, a general practitioner or specialist doctor should issue a referral to the patient, choosing the hospital together with the patient and agreeing on the possible time of hospitalisation with the patient and the hospital.
Many types of inpatient care are included in State-paid health care services, such as:
- birth assistance
- planned surgery: e.g., spine surgery, cardiac surgery
- continuous mechanical ventilation of the lungs
- treatment of infectious diseases (e.g. tuberculosis)
- care of chronic patients, etc.
note Patients are registered in waiting lines to receive scheduled State-funded surgery.
Read about outpatient care as well in this Guide.