The Extraordinary XVI National Congress of Physicians, which met in Łódź at the end of the week, made two important decisions: the regulations on elections within medical chambers were amended, and a new Code of Medical Ethics was adopted. Work on these documents took two years. Doctors were visited on Friday by Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna, who announced, among other things, changes in the regulations that remove criminal liability from doctors.
There is a new Code of Medical Ethics
Published May 20, 2024 09:28
- One of the first decisions of the Supreme Medical Council this term was to convene an Extraordinary National Convention of Physicians to bend over the Code of Medical Ethics and the election regulations. I don't think any of us doubts that the Code of Medical Ethics is the basic document that regulates our work, the work of doctors, and at the same time gives patients a guarantee that the doctor will ethically practice the profession. It is a common security - ours, the doctors' and our patients'," said Lukasz Jankowski, president of the Supreme Medical Council, during the inauguration of the Congress on Friday, noting that the last changes to the KEL were made in 2003 "when Poland was not even in the European Union yet, and the doctors' daily work was not supported by ICT tools, among other things. As he stressed, for example, the rapid expansion of social media, which radically changed the concept of advertising, forced significant changes to be made to the code.
The Health Minister was the guest of the doctors on Friday, and she assured them that, although it may not be apparent, the Health Ministry is working all the time to meet the demands of the medical self-government. She informed, among other things, of the issuance of a regulation on the mobile Right to Practice (during the vacations, she said, doctors will already be able to use this solution and have a PWZ in the mCitizen application) and of the decision on a simplified procedure for applying for a PWZ for doctors from Ukraine - it is due to expire on October 24, 2024. She also said that doctors from Ukraine will be required to demonstrate their knowledge of Polish by passing an appropriate exam.
The doctors applauded the news that the process of abolishing special teams in prosecutors' offices dealing with medical errors had begun (they had been in place since 2016 under then-Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobra). A promise was also made about the imminent introduction, perhaps this year, of a higher good clause that removes criminal liability from doctors for adverse medical events.
The minister also promised to meet the demand to remove the obligation of doctors to determine the level of drug reimbursement, but as she said, this will still take time, because the solutions her officials are presenting so far are far from perfect. - I don't want another bubble," she said.
