Since the start of this year, there have been problems booking time slots through the digital registry. ERR and "Aktuaalne Kaamera" reported on the issue a month ago, but the situation has not significantly improved.

Anett Pärs, product manager for the Health Insurance Fund's digital registry, said some patients may receive an error message saying their chosen time cannot be booked.

"One issue is that it can happen that several patients try to book the same time slot within a short time period, and the information that the time has already been booked doesn't reach the digital registry quickly enough," Pärs explained.

A patient tries to book an appointment in the digital registry, but their doctor's system does not confirm whether the time is available or not, she said.

The issues began at the start of the year after the merger of the health portal and the digital registry.

"On one hand, usage increased, and on the other hand, some old issues that did not show up as clearly in the old digital registry have now become very apparent in the health portal," Pärs said.

She said the number of errors has decreased since January, but the problem will only disappear once family health centers and hospitals update their systems to avoid conflicts with the digital registry.

"We are actively working to find additional improvement opportunities. For example, queries for available appointment times are now sent more frequently to the healthcare providers' information systems, and the page is also refreshed more frequently from the user's perspective. But there are also solutions whose implementation depends on the information systems of healthcare providers, their capacity, and their development speed," said the Health Insurance Fund representative.

Pärs confirmed the agency is working with institutions to find a solution.

"But they also need to develop their own systems, and they often have their own work schedules, so it is not always clear how quickly they can implement our suggestions or improvement proposals. In fact, the volume of error messages is not that large. It does not happen to every user — it is still a relatively small portion compared to the total number of successful bookings," she told ERR.

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