the result is that poland has the longest waiting times in the eu for health care interventions such as cataract and joint replacement surgery such as cataract and joint replacement surgery figure specialists may have an incentive to maintain waiting lists to boost demand for their own private services paid outofpocket by patients and the practice of double employment is fairly widespread and poorly regulated in poland european commission for example waiting times for some specialities can be up to months in some regions kowalska et al in addition the share of patients waiting for a neurology ophthalmology cardiac endocrinology or orthopaedic appointment in varied almost threefold across polands regions world bank group