Patients also want changes to medical staff liability rules for adverse events

As a reminder, the professional self-governments of doctors and nurses and midwives are demanding a change in the model of responsibility of medics for adverse events. In a joint position paper, they pointed out that the Polish health care system, based on finding the guilty and punishing them, does not serve to improve the quality of patient care.

"The current system, which is focused on searching for culprits in order to hold them criminally liable, fails to implement the basic health policy priority of improving the quality of patient care, while destroying trust between patients and medical personnel, and does not promote the development and training of medical personnel, especially in areas of medicine where the risk of complications or medical failure is higher, and encourages the emigration of qualified medical personnel abroad," they pointed out in the February 14 post.

Changing the approach to situations where medical procedures have failed should, in the opinion of the local government, involve removing the risk of criminal liability for unintentional acts from health care workers. This is crucial so that they can focus on providing effective assistance to patients. The local governments also call for the introduction of mechanisms to enable patients to be compensated for any damages in an efficient, speedy and out-of-court manner.

The Council of Patient Organizations under the Minister of Health at its March 20 meeting supported the position of the Presidium of the Supreme Medical Council and the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Nurses and Midwives.