Poland to tighten ZUS sick‑leave inspections and launch national e‑registration for health appointments

Polish Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) announced that inspections of sick‑leave certificates will become more frequent in 2025, using new algorithms to target cases. The 2025 register recorded 27.5 million sick‑leave notes, amounting to 290.5 million absent days, with short absences (up to five days) making up 43.9 % of cases. Peaks in one‑day leaves occur on Fridays and Mondays, and around holidays. In 2025 ZUS performed about 33,300 controls, finding irregularities in more than one‑third of checks; 26 % of inspected workers were absent from the listed address and 5.6 % had incorrect address data.

Concurrently, the National Health Fund (NFZ) is mandating a nationwide e‑registration system for medical appointments. All healthcare providers must integrate with the central platform by 1 July 2026, after which NFZ will fund services only when appointments are correctly recorded in the new database. The pilot phase covered preventive services such as mammography and HPV testing and has shown reduced waiting times and equalised access for patients in smaller towns. The digital system allows patients to book via an Internet Patient Account, streamlining the appointment process and aiming to improve transparency and fairness across Poland’s health system.