More than 85,000 persons replaced their family doctor in the period between September and October 2015, an increase of 30,000 compared with the corresponding period last year, IPN reports.

According to the National House of Social Insurance, this shows that a rising number of persons involved in the mandatory health insurance system know that they have the right to freely chose the family doctor and the primary medical-sanitary institution. “The use of this right is a proof of the fact that the people want medical services of a high quality. This way, competition between health facilities providing primary medical services increases,” said Iuliana Garam, of the National House of Social Insurance.

The House’s data show that almost 97% of the population was registered with public medical-sanitary institutions, about 2% - on the lists of family doctors from private institutions, while over 1% - on the lists of national or departmental institutions.

Over the last few years, some of the health facilities have incorrectly registered persons on their lists, in the absence of applications from these. In 2015, there were recorded 21,000 challenges concerning transfers from one family doctor to another. Thus, if a person finds out that they are registered with another family doctor, at another institution, in the absence of an application from them, they must ask the National Health Insurance Company, in written form or by email, to make changes to the roll of persons registered at primary medical-sanitary institutions.