The Supreme Medical Council, after reading the content of the law on assistance to citizens of Ukraine in connection with the armed conflict in the territory of that state, indicates that the legislator has not comprehensively, thoughtfully and rationally regulated the issue of providing health services in Poland by doctors and dentists who have obtained qualifications professional work outside the EU, in particular in Ukraine.
NIL: new regulations dangerous for patients, doctors and medical entities
Published March 15, 2022 12:06
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In the opinion of the Supreme Medical Council, the competences of doctors and dentists from Ukraine are valuable for providing medical care to their compatriots staying in our country and possibly other people who speak Ukrainian or Russian. However, granting these doctors professional qualifications allowing them to take care of Polish patients should be associated with an appropriate knowledge of the Polish language.
In the opinion of the medical self-government, it is incomprehensible that the act allows the employment of a person who does not have Polish citizenship as a teacher's assistant only on condition that they know the Polish language, and at the same time allows granting the right to practice the medical profession and providing health services to Polish patients who speak Polish in doesn't know at all.
The solution adopted in the act is all the more incomprehensible as it does not take into account the position of the government, which was expressed in the government bill amending the act on health care services financed from public funds and some other acts (UD 331). In this draft, the government plans to introduce the knowledge of the Polish language as a condition for obtaining a conditional license to practice as a doctor and a conditional license to practice as a dentist. In the justification of this bill, the government clearly indicated that the reason for this change was for the safety of patients.
In the opinion of the Supreme Medical Council, the situation in Ukraine, as well as the health needs of refugees from that country who found themselves on the territory of Poland and require medical care, justify the introduction of special legal solutions, but do not justify lowering the level of safety of providing health services to Polish patients.
The solutions adopted in the act, which omit the conditions necessary to obtain the right to practice the profession of a doctor and dentist in Poland, enabling the treatment of Polish patients, the necessity to speak Polish are dangerous solutions for doctors who will want to treat Polish patients without knowing Polish, dangerous for these patients, but also for medical entities that employ these doctors.
Support from the Polish state for refugees from Ukraine requiring medical care should be based on providing them with medical care provided with the participation of Ukrainian doctors - even those who do not speak Polish. Further, the support of these physicians, enabling them to treat Polish patients, should consist in providing them with the possibility of supplementing their language competences to such a level that the care provided by these doctors for a Polish-speaking patient will be safe.
Source: NIL
