Thousands are on the waitinglists

According to daily Hospodárske noviny from 4/11/2011 more than ten thousand patients are waiting for a planned operation. Although the law says that no one should wait for the operation longer than one year, there are thousands of them. There are 2 400 patients on the waiting lists of Všeobecná zdravotná poisťovňa. The longest waiting times are for the hip replacements and other orthopaedic surgery. Hospitals put patients on the waiting lists when they can not treat them within 3 months. The reason may be a lack of material, physicians on the leave of absence, financial limits from insurance companies or high number of patients already on the list.