Not in my Eu country. Where do you get your info and where specifically are you referring to? I can choose to wait for an appointment or i can pay. Waiting involves non-life changing issues so the wait is based on severity. My last referral was 'within 7 days', and i got seen (fairly serious). Either, someone got bumped or there's enough flex in the system to handle surprises. My last stay in hospital [oct of 21] my costs were about €40 - for 10 days, inclusive of everything.

Source?

Waiting times in months for pregnancy makes little sense since:

* many pregnancy related things have specific timelines that should be followed

* pretty much all European countries have negative natural growth, meaning that there are fewer and fewer babies being born. It's highly unlikely related specialists are being overburdened.