What about the ban on combining doctors in the public and private sectors?

At the Supreme Medical Council on Wednesday, representatives of the Medical Council presented the results of an online survey, in which more than 2,200 doctors and dentists took part during the week. As the president of the Supreme Medical Council, Dr. Lukasz Jankowski, MD, stressed, such a large number of completed surveys shows that the topic is very important to doctors. The topic of banning the combination of work in the two sectors, the NRL president said, is not new, and politicians have been returning to this solution for years, in various variants, although without specifics. And without, it seems, being based on facts and analysis - because while this solution could solve some of the problems, others, probably, would be compounded.

The results of the survey from which the report was published are clear: a simple ban on the combination of public and private sector work is supported by 15 percent of doctors. - The results of the PERSPECTIVE 27 survey show that respondents do not support a simple model of a full ban on doctors combining public and private work. Much greater acceptance was given to solutions that organize and promote transparency," said Dr. Artur Bialoszewski, NIL expert.

Nearly three-quarters of respondents are in favor of full separation of queues, schedules and billing. More than half accept the obligation to openly report all jobs. The reasons are obvious, a large proportion of doctors admit that at the moment the model of combining work in both sectors entails the risk of pathologies, such as adding "private" patients outside the queue or using public equipment for private purposes.

The local government also asked doctors whether they would be willing to give up their jobs in the private sector. The largest group would consider such a decision, but under a number of conditions. What are they? Two-thirds of the respondents expect a salary of at least three national averages, with 40 percent of doctors expecting a minimum salary of PLN 25-40 thousand gross. However, finances are not everything - almost half of the doctors would expect a significant reduction in bureaucracy and a "reasonable number of patients," i.e. employment standards, the doctors would also like clear rules and favorable financing for on-call and overtime, as well as better legal protection for medics.

If politicians decide on the option of a full ban on combining work in public and private health care, most physicians foresee negative consequences, first of all for patients, but also for medical entities: longer queues, worsening accessibility and threatening continuity of care on the one hand, and worsening problems with staffing of hospital wards and outpatient clinics on the other. There would also be upsides to such a solution: greater transparency in queues (a benefit to patients) and less risk of professional burnout due to overwork (a benefit to doctors).