MZ: More time for hospital emergency departments to adapt to new regulations

June 30, 2024 is the deadline for hospital emergency departments to comply with the requirements of the Health Minister's Regulation of June 27, 2019 on hospital emergency departments (Journal of Laws of 2023, item 336, as amended), in terms of:

1) the organization in the location of the hospital emergency department of a place for the provision of night and holiday health care services;

2) provide for the position of head of the hospital emergency department (physician in charge of the department) a physician with certain qualifications.

Pursuant to Section 15(4a) of the ED Regulation, there is an obligation to meet the requirement to provide night and holiday healthcare services at the location of a hospital emergency department, hereinafter referred to as the "ED" until June 30, 2024.

There are currently 246 EDs in the country, of which after June 30, 2024. 27 EDs will not meet the requirement to provide night and holiday healthcare services at an ED location.

According to Paragraph 16(1) of the ED Regulation, until June 30, 2024, the head of the department (the doctor in charge of the department) can be a doctor of the system. After this date, only a physician will be allowed to be employed in the above position:

- holding a specialist title in emergency medicine or

- after the second year of specialization in emergency medicine, who continues specialization training and has a concurrent specialty or specialist degree in anesthesiology and intensive care, internal medicine, general surgery, pediatric surgery, orthopedics and traumatology, orthopedics and traumatology, pediatrics, neurology or cardiology.

Hospitals are signaling problems in providing the aforementioned physicians in the ED, not only as emergency department heads, but also as ongoing staffing. Of the 246 existing EDs, after June 30, 2024. 51 EDs will not meet the requirement in the above regard.

The amendment to the regulation is intended to allow treatment entities to comply with the above requirements.

The draft extends the period to bring the ED into compliance with the requirements of the ED regulation regarding the organization at the ED location of the place of providing night and holiday health care services and the qualifications of the ED chief (physician in charge of the department). The deadline will be postponed by 6 months, i.e. until December 31, 2024.

Source: RCL