It has been shown that in Slovenia the percentage of referrals to specialists is relatively high compared to other European countries. At the same time, the referral quality is low. This paper analyses reasons for referral. Some suggestions are provided on how to reduce the num­ber of referrals and how to improve their quality. The former task turns out to be difficult if one uses only the administrative measures, while the latter is more feasible and is accom­panied by an improvement in working efficiency.