Assistance in setting up an online patient account and completing a health questionnaire and the possibility of issuing a referral for a preventive examination. Such services will be provided in the offices of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture. It is primarily about improving farmers' access to preventive programmes, especially Profilaktyka 40 Plus. The implementation indicators of this program are unsatisfactory so far - less than half of the assumed goal has been achieved.
ARMA employees will help farmers sign up for preventive examinations
Published Nov. 23, 2022 11:37
fot. Piotr Wójcik
The Ministry of Health signed today (Tuesday, November 23) a letter of intent on cooperation between the ministries of agriculture and health in promoting preventive healthcare for residents of rural areas. ARMA offices will play a key role in this project.
- Our employees have already been trained to accept interested parties and provide them with assistance, both in terms of registering on the patient's online account, as well as tips on how to prepare for completing the survey. A research referral will be generated for each such survey. I hope that this form of taking care of the inhabitants of rural areas will improve the health indicators of the inhabitants of rural areas - says Halina Szymańska, President of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture.
Such consultations can be held in 330 ARMA facilities throughout Poland. As Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Henryk Kowalczyk, emphasizes, the access of residents of rural areas and small towns to preventive examinations is much worse than for people living and working in large cities. He considers it a very good idea to sign up for preventive examinations in ARMA offices.
– There is no better access to farmers than the Agency for Restructuring and Modernization of Agriculture. Each farmer is a beneficiary of direct payments, so he has contact with ARMA. Hence the idea to reach farmers through agency structures and encourage them to take preventive measures. I hope that thanks to these activities many diseases will be detected and cured earlier, says Henryk Kowalczyk.
The Ministry of Health is particularly interested in improving the indicators regarding the use of the "Prophylactics 40 Plus" program. From July 1, 2021, every Pole over 40 can receive access to a free package of diagnostic tests for the most common diseases in the population.
– We are not satisfied with the results of participating in this program. We have 900,000 registered people, of which 700,000 has already been tested. It is still not enough, because the success criterion is 2 million people tested - indicates the Minister of Health.
Adam Niedzielski believes that reaching the inhabitants of rural areas with preventive examinations through ARMA facilities will allow to level out geographical differences in access.
– Epidemic indicators regarding cancer or cardiological diseases are unfavorable for rural residents. It is important to reach not only large urban centers but also smaller towns and villages with solutions promoting public health. Thanks to this, accessibility across the entire population will actually be comparable - says the head of the Ministry of Health.
