President of NRL to MPC: necessary analysis of respect for patients' rights

In a letter to the MPC, the president of the NRL stresses the need to analyze the impact of doctors' lack of knowledge of the Polish language on respecting patients' rights to, among other things, information about their health, consent to treatment and medical documentation.

- A good knowledge of the Polish language by a person who practices the medical profession in Poland seems necessary and obvious, especially if one takes into account that the legislator has introduced the requirement of adequate knowledge of the Polish language even for persons applying to practice in Poland other medical professions referred to in the Act of August 17, 2023 on certain medical professions, i.e., for example, a dental hygienist, a medical caregiver, an optometrist, a podiatrist, an audiologist. Persons practicing these medical professions are required to speak and write Polish to the extent necessary to practice a given medical profession, so it is difficult to understand why a profession with a much higher level of responsibility for patients' health, such as the medical profession, should be exempted from this requirement," notes the NRL president.

The medical self-government has repeatedly pointed out that the Health Minister's approvals for conditional practice of the profession (under Article 7(9) of the Law on the Profession of Physician and Dentist) or for practice of the profession with a specific scope of professional activities, period and place of employment in a medical entity (under Article 7(2a) of the Law on the Profession of Physician and Dentist) without reliable verification of the linguistic competence of candidates for the medical profession, may lead to violation of important patient rights.

The President of the NRL called for the Ombudsman for the Patient Ombudsman to take a directional position on the requirement of Polish language skills as an element to ensure that patients' rights are respected.