In 2021, the Office of the Patient Ombudsman was literally inundated with an avalanche of reports and complaints from patients - nearly 164,000 were received, the most since 2009, i.e. since the establishment of an institution that safeguards patient rights. Grounds? First of all, a pandemic, but also - growing awareness of patients and their relatives about their rights.
MPC: an avalanche of patient complaints last year
Published Sept. 15, 2022 08:25
On Wednesday, the Health Committee listened to the information from the Ombudsman for Patients' Rights about the activities in 2021 and - after discussions - adopted his report.
Bartłomiej Chmielowiec emphasized that still many violations of patients' rights are not registered or reported in any way. Moreover, it must be assumed that in many cases patients or their relatives may not even be aware that the patient's rights are being violated. On the other hand, the MPC emphasized that patients' awareness of their rights was growing - one of the consequences of which is also the growing number of applications and complaints addressed to the MPC Office. Patients are less and less passive recipients of services, they have growing expectations as to the standard, quality and availability of services. These expectations are addressed primarily to entities performing therapeutic activities and medical workers.
Last year, the Office of the Patient Ombudsman received over 164,000. various types of reports, complaints and signals from patients, the most since the appointment of the Patient Ombudsman in 2009. - It was a difficult year, the second year of the pandemic. During this time, we recognized about 140,000. individual cases referred to the MPC Office through various channels. In cases where a patient's right was found to be violated, we formulated appropriate recommendations. In 2021, we issued several thousand of them and 90 percent. they were implemented by institutions - informed the deputies.
What were the most frequently violated rights?
- to provide services with due diligence,
- for immediate benefits,
- for information,
- to consent to the services provided,
- to respect private life.
Chmielowiec admitted that the signals about violations of patient rights that came to his office in 2021 often resulted from too restrictive restrictions imposed by clinics in connection with the pandemic. - At the POZ level, many comments related to problems with getting in touch or the possibility of arranging a personal visit. In hospitals, this concerned mainly restrictions on visits and the cancellation of scheduled surgeries - enumerated the MPC, whose decisions and messages addressed to service providers (especially hospitals) during a pandemic were often criticized by experts, pointing out that when it comes to the necessity to protect health and life of patients staying in institutions, the enforcement of the right to contact their relatives yes, disregarding the reality, is difficult to understand.
The MPC also initiated proceedings concerning practices violating collective patient rights. As he explained, in this area the MPC has similar powers to the president of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. - The Ombudsman may issue a decision prohibiting certain practices. Failure to implement this decision results in the imposition of a fine of up to PLN 500,000. zloty. We have issued 199 decisions of this type - he emphasized. Bartłomiej Chmielowiec emphasized that throughout the entire period of his function (i.e. from November 2017), he issued about 630 similar decisions, and only in four cases they were revoked by administrative courts.
The Ombudsman also emphasized that one of his powers is also to support patients during civil proceedings, when the patient believes that he is due compensation for the damage to his health. - Last year, there were nearly a hundred such proceedings. Throughout the activities of the MPC, we managed to obtain compensation for patients in the total amount of over PLN 7 million - emphasized Chmielowiec.
