Continuation of the prescriber case. The minister notifies the prosecutor's office, and accuses the medical self-government of failing to respond to letters addressed to it

The Health Ministry had been looking at the market for e-prescribing through online platforms for a long time. As the head of the Health Ministry points out, this was due to concerns about quality and concern for the welfare of patients. According to Adam Niedzielski, there was a significant concern about whether someone would be harmed by the unwarranted use of drugs. That's why the e-Health Center was ordered to check the emerging concerns. It turned out that the scale of the problem was very large.

- We were able to identify ten doctors who wrote between 100,000 and 400,000 prescriptions in a year. This is a huge number. They issued from nearly 300 to more than a thousand prescriptions a day. The record holder would have to see patients 24 hours a day, issuing more than 50 prescriptions per hour. If we narrow it down to 10 or even 12 hours of work, this would mean issuing up to 100 prescriptions per hour, which is physically impossible and indicates that we are dealing with a business, not an activity aimed at taking care of the patient's health, the health minister said.

In addition, in two cases there was suspicion that powerful painkillers and psychotropic drugs prescribed without examination led to the death of the patient. The ministry has sent letters to the Supreme Medical Chamber containing the details of 29 doctors, according to the ministry, who repeatedly violate the law and issue prescriptions in bulk without examining patients.

- These letters have received no response. I have no information that any consequences have been drawn against these people, while the Supreme Medical Chamber and the ombudsman for professional responsibility have the power to suspend the right to practice medicine and not allow prescription business," the health minister indicated, and informed that if the medical community is unable to rid itself of the black sheep, he himself will take drastic measures.

- I signed a denunciation to the prosecutor's office, in which I pointed to ten doctors who, according to our lawyers, committed at least five crimes: certifying an untruth in connection with a test not performed, fraud, because some of these prescriptions are reimbursed, bringing danger to public life and health on a massive scale, and facilitating access to narcotics. These are all potential charges formulated in the denunciation. I am in direct contact with the national prosecutor, Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobra, on this matter," says the Health Minister.

In addition, Adam Niedzielski announced the decision to introduce a maximum number of prescriptions that a doctor can issue daily. The standard is to serve 80 patients in 10 working hours and give them about 300 prescriptions. At the same time, work is being finalized on a regulation that will limit the ability to issue psychotropic drugs using online platforms. Writing a prescription will have to be preceded by a consultation if a long time has passed since the last visit.

In response to the health minister's allegations, the Supreme Medical Chamber also called a conference.

- We initiate disciplinary proceedings anytime there is a notice, and if there has been a professional tort, we take the cases to court. On the other hand, out of concern for the observance of the law, of which we want to remind Mr. Niedzielski: in Poland it is independent courts that pass judgments, not Mr. Minister by way of letters or speeches at hastily convened conferences," retorted NIL president Lukasz Jankowski.

NIL received 10 notices from the Ministry of Health from April to the end of June. They went to the chief ombudsman for professional responsibility and then to the district ombudsmen.

- These ombudsmen, acting like prosecutors, have begun to handle cases that involve calling a doctor to account, interviewing witnesses, and conducting the entire investigation. If the Minister is saying at a press conference today that the doctors involved in these notifications committed crimes in his opinion and is referring the notifications to the prosecutor's office, what has he been doing for the past two and a half months since the first notification was sent to us? We initiated proceedings as soon as they came to us. The Supreme Ombudsman for Professional Responsibility has sent eight notices on 30 doctors and dentists during this period. We remind the Minister that each of these cases requires a thorough investigation. Among these cases, for example, we have the case of a doctor who was suspected of issuing prescriptions without any contact with the patient, meanwhile, as he later notified law enforcement agencies, his access to IT systems was stolen," explained Lukasz Jankowski.

The NIL president said that the community is outraged that the head of the health ministry is arrogantly and happenstance trying to cover up the lack of years of action and shift responsibility to doctors and the medical self-government.

- Some of these cases were referred to court by the chief ombudsman for professional responsibility. Two and a half months is a very short time. If the minister would like us to bypass procedures and convict doctors based only on his appearances at press conferences, we oppose it. In a state under the rule of law, everyone has the right to a defense, and even a strong suspicion of misconduct does not exempt the local government from conducting proceedings," said the NIL president