Justice Ministry announces raises for court doctors

As the ROP pointed out, ensuring access to court doctors is important to guarantee a real possibility of excusing the failure of participants in proceedings to appear due to illness, and not to expose the citizen to the negative procedural consequences of the actual inability to obtain a court doctor's certificate. Citizens' applications to the RPO show that in some court districts there are no court doctors at all, while in others there are few doctors, too few in view of the needs. The applicants also point out the problem with the actual availability of court doctors and the failure to inform the courts' websites about their temporary unavailability. Sometimes only one court doctor with a narrow specialty is available in a given district, which raises citizens' concerns about the possibility of a reliable assessment of their condition. 

Citizens also raise concerns about the excessive formality of the rules for excusing absences from court. They point to the lack of availability of court doctors with different specialties. When issuing certificates confirming the ability or inability to appear, they duplicate the diagnoses of other doctors from the medical records submitted, because they do not feel competent to make their own findings.

Information provided to the RPO shows that the shortage of court doctors also affects participants in disciplinary proceedings.

The Ombudsman's Office has received a response from Arkadiusz Myrcha, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health. The Ministry has taken steps to identify the scale of the problem, and is conducting analytical and conceptual work aimed at increasing the salaries of court doctors through an amendment to the regulation. However, the outcome of the work and the date by which it will be completed will depend, among other things, on budgetary possibilities. - According to the information we have, the number of contracts expiring at the end of 2023 was 12, which is about 5% of all concluded contracts, i.e. that in 8 out of 47 court districts there was not a single doctor who decided to conclude a contract with the president of the relevant district court to act as a court doctor in the district of a given court, Arkadiusz Myrcha admits.

Such a situation occurred in the District Court districts of: Gorzow Wielkopolski, Ostroleka, Rybnik, Rzeszow, Slupsk, Sosnowiec, Suwalki and Zielona Gora.

High qualifications - low pay

Among other things, the forensic doctor must have a specialist degree or a first or second degree specialization. Another requirement is also the need to personally examine the litigant, after additional review of available medical records, and the obligation to keep detailed records. One factor that may encourage eligible physicians to contract in this regard is the amount of remuneration, the MS state secretary points out. This one, currently at PLN 100, results in very little interest on the part of doctors. - In view of the above, the Ministry of Justice has taken steps to identify the scale of the signaled problem and is conducting analytical and conceptual work aimed at increasing the remuneration of court doctors through an amendment to the aforementioned regulation. The outcome of this work and the date by which it will be completed will depend, among other things, on the State's budget capabilities," explains Arkadiusz Myrcha.

Source: RPO