Polish Emergency Rooms (SOR) Won’t Issue Prescriptions, Sick Leave or Specialist Referrals

Poland’s hospital emergency departments, known as Szpitalny Oddział Ratunkowy (SOR), are strictly for life‑threatening situations and not for routine primary‑care visits. Patients are first triaged using a colour‑coded system – red, orange, yellow, green and blue – which determines how quickly medical staff respond. Doctors on SOR treat only the immediate, acute condition and stabilise vital functions. They do not provide chronic‑care services such as prescription refills, referrals to specialists or sanatoria, nor extended sick‑leave certificates (L‑4). A limited medical certificate may be issued for the day of the emergency, but longer‑term documentation must be obtained from a regular outpatient clinic. The article explains that many Poles mistakenly use SOR to bypass long waiting times for specialist appointments, but the department’s mandate is limited to urgent care.