At the Senate Health Committee on the topic of vaccinations, an idea was presented to make the fight against mandatory vaccination evasion more effective. The idea is to replace administrative fines with fines. - This is just an idea at the moment," says Health Minister Adam Niedzielski.
Fines for not vaccinating. Health Minister: this is just an idea for now, there is no draft law
Published June 13, 2023 14:05
fot. Piotr Wójcik
- We are dealing with the phenomenon of evasion of vaccinations from the vaccination calendar. We are trying to combat this. The introduction of an electronic vaccination card makes it possible to check whether this calendar is being implemented. The second way is to replace the fine imposed in administrative proceedings with a fine," says Health Minister Adam Niedzielski.
The idea was presented during a June meeting of the Senate Health Committee. At the time, the director of the Public Health Department at the Health Ministry, Dariusz Poznański, said that there is a need to seal the system by creating the right legal framework. An amendment to the Law on Health Services, which is being prepared, will serve this purpose.
- We are planning a number of changes, including making the electronic vaccination card mandatory. Now it is optional. This change will significantly improve information on the level of immunization among children and adolescents. We will no longer have to rely on annual reports from primary health care," the department director said.
Another idea is to make it easier to impose consequences on people who evade the vaccination requirement.
- The idea is to simplify an inefficient and convoluted administrative procedure. These are considerations that have been put forward, but there is no bill yet that includes such provisions. It's just an idea at the moment," the health minister explained.
According to data from the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate, almost 6.4 thousand people evaded mandatory immunization last year. Nearly 3.2 thousand enforcement orders were issued.
