Children in the ICU don't have to be alone - health ministry responds to petition

On Thursday, MPs sitting on the Committee on Children and Youth Affairs took up the issue. The authors of the petition demand that the right to 24-hour accompaniment of a child in an intensive care unit be respected. They point out that at the moment the parents' "access" to the child is regulated on a discretionary basis, the decision being made by those in charge of the ward on unclear and questionable grounds. The result? There are hospitals where a parent can stay with the child all day (though not likely at night), as well as those where time is limited to 3.5 hours a day.

Maria Cichulska, one of the co-authors of the petition, a doctor, stressed during the committee's meeting that the regulations that limit the right of a parent to stay together with a child in the hospital need to be clarified so that there is no discretion in their interpretation. So that parents are not deprived of the right to be with their child because the hospital declares a "lack of conditions of stay" or a growing epidemic threat in an infectious season that lasts for months.

Maja Herman, a specialist in psychiatry, stressed that the presence of a close adult in a situation of illness or danger is crucial to a child's health - both mental and physical. This is particularly important in the case of children under the age of three, in whom a situation of chronic stress can cause irreversible changes in the central nervous system, the consequences of which include PTSD, broken bonds, depression. As she stressed, the comatose state does not mean that pediatric patients do not need the presence of a parent, do not feel the effects of a parent's absence. - There is sometimes an argument that parents interfere. They get in the way if they are not prepared," she said, adding that at little cost hospitals can develop materials to help parents learn about the ICU.

Patient Ombudsman Bartlomiej Chmielowiec noted that two rights should be distinguished: the right to visitation and the right to extra nursing care. These are rights belonging to hospitalized children, and he proposed to focus on them, stressing that extra nursing care takes on particular importance in the case of minors (although it is also needed for people with disabilities and the elderly.) He noted that a parent should have the full right to provide such care to a child, and that restrictions on the right should be implemented exceptionally, in the least burdensome way, proportionately and only as a last resort.

In turn, Pawel Grzesiewski, representing the Children's Ombudsman, noted that organizational reasons cannot be a reason for restricting the right to extra nursing care. However, neither the MPC nor the RPD see the need for statutory changes or clarification of regulations on this issue - they, in the opinion of the offices, sufficiently uphold patient rights.

A representative of the Ministry of Health, Dagmara Korbasinska-Chwedczuk, announced that the ministry would prepare a speech to hospitals outlining the differences between the right to visitation and the right to extra nursing care, as well as the expectations and conditions that should be met for patients' rights to be respected. At the same time, she stressed that the stay of parents with their child in the ICU must not violate the rights of other patients hospitalized in the same room.