What is the quality of medical care?

[Bonobo]

200 years of medical education in Warsaw
Polish Market
2009-05-08

The Warsaw Medical University (WUM), which is celebrating the 200th anniversary of medical education in Poland, is organizing an open-air event for Warsaw residents on Sunday. Tents with displays promoting WUM clinics and departments are to be set up along the pedestrianised Nowy Œwiat Street in the Old Town. Those who attend the event will also have the opportunity to be seen by professionals. The event will end with a rock concert.

The Medical University of Warsaw is now the largest medical school in Poland. It has over five thousand students (including 500 foreigners) and a staff of 1,352 academic teachers, including 146 professors (61 full professors, 27 associate professors and 58 adjunct professors) and 581 lecturers. The University offers degree courses in nine principal subject areas and in four specialities. Additionally, it provides post-graduate education.WUM cooperates with 10 Warsaw hospitals.

The main objective of the Medical University of Warsaw is to provide instruction in medicine. But there are also opportunities for students to participate in one of the numerous research programmes carried out at the University. They are supported by the Polish Committee of Research and International, European as well as US Organisations. The University has 400 ongoing research projects covering pathogenesis, diagnostics, therapy, prevention and therapeutic process optimization, treatment effectiveness and costs.


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Poles choose private health care
thenews.pl
14.05.2009
One third of medical services in Poland are paid for from private resources, not the National Health Fund, shows a report published by internet portal money.pl.
In 2008, Poles spent 28 billion zlotys (6 billion euros) on private heath care, while the state National Health Fund (NFZ), where Poles' health insurance premiums are allocated, spent 48 billion zlotys (11 billion euros) on medical treatment.
It means that last year, on average, Poles paid 737 zlotys (165 euros) extra for health care on top of their compulsory premiums.
Health insurance premiums covered 98 percent of hospital treatment but when it comes to clinics, 47 percent of medical services were covered from private resources.
The most popular among private health institutions were dentist's. In 2008, Poles spent 6 billion zlotys (1,3 billion euros) on getting their teeth fixed. Only one third of that sum was provided by the National Health Fund.
Last year Poles spent 700,000 to 1 billion zlotys (156,000 to 224 million euros) on payments to private surgeries and 80 to 120 million zlotys (18 to 27 million euros) on private health insurance.
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Small town pupils' health "one of the worst in EU"
Polish Radio
13.05.2009
The Ombudsman for Children in Poland says that pupils from small towns and villages have no access to proper health care at school.
Seventy percent of Polish primary schools have no doctor's surgeries. When medical facilities are available nurses often have too many pupils to take care of.
Chronic illnesses and other ailments are consequently not being diagnosed. The mortality rate among children and teenagers in Poland is about 40% higher than in other developed countries, says Poland's Ombudsman.
The Ministry of National Education (MEN), however, does not intend to bring back doctor's and dentist's surgeries within schools. "We will have to discuss the problem at the meeting of the representatives of school administrators in May," explains the representative at the Ministry of National Education's press office, Justyna Sedlak.
According to the Ombudsman's data, two-thirds of primary schools, a half of junior high schools (gymnasium) and one third of high schools do not have a doctor's surgery on the premises. In schools located in villages, where the amount of students in a school does not exceed over 100, the nurse employed there must take care of a few schools, resulting in only one or two days spent at each school.

[Bonobo]

Super-husbands examine breasts in Bialystok
Polish Radio
21.05.2009

"Super-husbands" wearing t-shirts with the motto "I examine my wife's breasts," went on a parade in the city of Bia³ystok, north east Poland, yesterday.

The demo was part of an unusual campaign reminding women of the necessity of routine breast cancer tests.

Among those wearing the "Super-husband" shirt was deputy chief of the Podlasie province, Bogus³aw Dêbski and Bia³ystok president, Tadeusz Truskolaski, who said that he viewed the t-shirt mostly as a way of gaining publicity for the cause, but, he added, modestly, he didn't want anyone to "think he was bragging".

[Bonobo]

Apr 25, 2009 2:09:46 GMT 1 valpomike said:

Has this been done in Poland by Polish Doctors yet?
Why did she have to come to Cleveland, Ohio for this?
Mike

Cleveland Clinic surgeon Maria Siemionow, who performed face transplant, has quite a story to tell
by Regina Brett
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Saturday June 13, 2009
Almost everyone has heard about the power of now.
But what about the power of wow?
How much wow is there in your life?
That question came to me after reading the autobiography of surgeon Maria Siemionow. The Cleveland Clinic doctor pioneered the first nearly total face transplant in the country.
Her new book, "Face to Face: My Quest to Perform the First Full Face Transplant," tells the journey of her life. Dr. Siemionow grew up in Poland before the Berlin Wall fell. She lived under martial law for two cold, dark, silent years of enforced curfews and limited rights.
When she left "the wrong side of the Iron Curtain" for America, she brought with her a bit of an inferiority complex. She wasn't sure her medical skills would be as sharp as those of doctors here.
In America, she didn't understand even the simplest of hospital acronyms, like ER and OR, but quickly found that she spoke the same language as her colleagues.
"We spoke medicine," she writes.
As a researcher, she sometimes felt like Lewis and Clark on a ridge out West seeing a valley for the first time.
"The wonder of discovery can occur in medical research, tedious as that research might seem when it involves staring through a microscope at tissue from a rat scrotum," she writes. "Every once in a while we get to say, 'Wow!' "
The world said "Wow!" with her when we got a glimpse of Connie Culp. Dr. Siemionow gave her a new face in December.
Connie, who lives in Ohio, lost her face to a shotgun blast. She can now breathe through her nose. Drink from a cup. Eat solid food. Smile.
Wow.
It took a 22-hour surgery, a team of eight surgeons, four anesthesiologists, 20 nurses, countless others and nearly 30 years of perseverance. Dr. Siemionow credits her part to always wanting to learn and being willing to ask questions.
Too many people don't ask.
"I've worked with and trained many bright, talented young medical students, and too often I am disappointed to find that they seem to have lost the ability to ask sound clinical questions," she writes. "They don't ask the questions that allow them to say, 'Wow!' "
Those questions can sometimes seem like Russian nesting dolls. You take one apart and find another, then another. But the goal isn't to find an answer, it's to stay on the right path and keep asking.
It's a path where you weigh the balance between risk and benefit, then listen to your inner voice. The answer, Dr. Siemionow writes, usually lies somewhere between "I think I can" and "I know I can."
I left the book wondering how many of us simply fail to ask the key questions that would help us face life head-on. Questions like: What do we know we can do? What do we think we can do? What should we try? Where's the fine line between acceptable and unacceptable risk? Or this question I heard someone pose: What would my best self do in this situation? It's amazing what happens when you ask it.
Dr. Siemionow told me she's going after the Holy Grail: To tackle the human immune system, which confounds all transplant surgeons. She dreams of the day when transplanted organs won't be rejected.
She'll make that breakthrough by asking questions. Ones that will lead her, and us, to wow.

[Bonobo]

Polish women do not know much about sex
news.poland. com
2009-06-21

50 % of Polish women think that coitus interruptus is an effective method to prevent pregnancy. 10 % of female Poles have sex without any protection while they do not want to have children.

Televised public service messages did not help. "Polish women do not know anything about their bodies. Even mature women are sometimes surprised when I use terms like "ovary" or "womb" – says Malgorzata Binkowska from the Medical Center of Postgraduate Education in Warsaw.

What is more, many Polish women do not know anything about contraception. According to the research sponsored by Bayer company, 50 % of Polish women aged 18-49, think thatt it is enough to observe their bodies in order to prevent pregnancy.

[valpomike]

With all the HOT women, Poland has, I would go back a teach them good sex. For little or no money. Just a place to live, three meals a day, and a few good cigars. Is there a job for me?


Mike

[Bonobo]

Doctors topple lawyers in wage scale
thenews.pl
15.09.2009

Doctors in Poland earn more than other professionals but also work long hours, shows Payroll 2009, a report on salaries prepared by the magazine Puls Medycyny.

According to the report, a salary of a medical consultant has increased by 100 per cent and of a top consultant by 120 per cent in the recent three years. Thus, doctors have become the best earning professional group, leaving lawyers in the dust.

The Health Ministry revealed that, in May 2009, a GP earned on average 5,301 zloty a month (1,300 euro), a specialist physician of first degree 6,442 zloty (1,540 euro), a specialist physician of second degree 7,203 zloty (1,700 euro), and a head of a ward 10,284 zloty (2,470 euro). Additionally, salaries vary according to region. A physician specializing in internal medicine who is a head of ward in the eastern Podlasie province earns 18,240 zloty (4,380 euro) a month while his counterpart in the western Lubuskie province earns 21,000 zloty (5,040 euro).

Doctors earn a lot but the report shows that they also work more than other professionals – on average, more than 40 hours a week. Some physicians are on duty even 20 times a month and work at several different hospitals and clinics.

"Doctors have a lot of opportunities to earn extra money – they can take additional night shifts, work at private surgeries after consulting hours at public hospitals and give lectures," says Rafal Janiszewski, an adviser to the Health Ministry.

However, it is hard work, assures Krzysztof Bukiel from the Polish Nationwide Union of Physicians. "If you compare salaries of doctors and the amount of hours they work, you will see that, in fact, physicians earn less than teachers," says Bukiel.

[Bonobo]

Poland's health care sector suffering?
thenews.pl
29.09.2009

Poland ranks 26th out of 33 in a European-wide healthcare ranking, showing that the country's health care sector is not in the best condition.

The authors of the report, done by the Brussels-based Health Consumer Powerhouse, took into consideration several criteria, among them patient's rights and access to medical information, waiting lists for regular procedures, results of treatment, offer of medical services as well as access to medications.

Poland received the most points for observing patients' rights, and ranked well for its system of children's' vaccinations and refunded dentist services. The authors of the report point out that, however, in order to provide Poles with a proper level of medical services the country needs a financing system which will ensure adequate remuneration for its medical personnel.

In this part of the continent, Poland ranked higher than Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria. The countries with the best health care systems in Europe are Holland followed by Denmark, Iceland and Austria.

[valpomike]

This gives them something to work on, and it would be hard to be first in everything, along with the HOT POLISH women.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Poland sends aid to flu ravaged Ukraine
02.11.2009 07:38

Aid is arriving in Ukraine from Poland to help combat the flu epidemic after 60 people died in just seven days.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko personally request assistance from his Polish counterpart, Lech Kaczyński for assistance at the weekend.

Youshchenko also wrote to the US and NATO to help fight the virus which he sees as threatening the nation’s internal security. “The threat weighing on Ukraine's national security which we cannot fight alone forces me to ask our close friends and strategic partners for urgent help,” Ukraine’s president wrote.

Sunday evening, Poland’s Foreign Ministry sent laboratory diagnosis teams from the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology in Pulawy.

Polish laboratories are performing tests on samples to check for the presence of A/H1N1.

Earlier, Mayor of Lviv, Andry Sadovy turned to the authorities of several Polish and Austrian cities for humanitarian aid. The Polish Consulate General in Lviv says the first transport of Polish aid has reached the city. The city of Krakow sent a respirator, 2,000 protective masks, 70 sets of protective clothing, 1000 gloves, 80 pieces of of the drug Tamiflu. Wroclaw has sent 10,000 masks with vaccines and medicines.

Quarantine has been imposed on nine regions of Ukraine since the outbreak of the epidemic. (pg/ab)

[valpomike]

Again, Poland in her greatness, helps the world, even with not receiving a return most times.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Tusk: Poland won't buy swine flu vaccine until it's proven safe
By DPA
Nov 6, 2009

Warsaw - Poland will not buy swine flu vaccines until they are proven to be safe and without side effects, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday.

'We don't want to save and we won't save on vaccines if we are certain that they are safe for the Polish patient,' Tusk said, adding that there was 'great pressure from pharmaceutical companies' when it came to purchasing the vaccines.

The European Commission confirmed Friday that vaccines are the best tactic to fight the swine flu.
'We realize there are today no other alternatives to the shots,' Tusk said, 'And I would be very interested ... in a statement that the European Commission takes on itself legal responsibility for the shot's side effects.'

Tusk said there had been no swine flu deaths in Poland. He said that he was 'treating the problem diligently' that he had a family member infected with the H1N1 virus.

Debate on the vaccines flared up in Poland with a deadly flu outbreak in Ukraine, Poland's eastern neighbour.

A total of 109 people suffering from flu-related symptoms have died in Ukraine since late October.

[valpomike]

Good thinking on his part, I wish that was the case here in the USA. But our no good leaders think otherwise, or don't care.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Nov 15, 2009 18:43:08 GMT 1 valpomike said:

Good thinking on his part, I wish that was the case here in the USA. But our no good leaders think otherwise, or don't care.
Mike

Unfortunately, some wise guys know better.... :


Polish minister under fire for not buying swine flu vaccines
DPA
Nov 13, 2009

Warsaw - A top Polish civil rights official threatened legal action Friday against Health Minister Ewa Kopacz, saying her delay in purchasing swine flu vaccines could endanger people's lives and health.

Janusz Kochanowski, Ombudsman of Civil Rights Protection, said he would take the matter to prosecutors if 'the situation doesn't change by Monday' and Kopacz doesn't purchase the vaccines.

'Let's not joke. The time for joking is over,' he told broadcaster TVN 24, adding that Poland was the only country in Europe that was keeping a 'stone calm' in a time of pandemic.

Jakub Szulc, deputy health minister, said at a press conference Friday that it was 'really difficult to speak here of any kind of danger,' adding that Poland had 550,000 cases of flu last year and under 70,000 with the flu this year. He said the ministry needed first to make sure that the vaccine was safe.

So far in Poland this year, there have been 234 cases of swine flu and no fatalities attributed to the sine flu.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last week that Poland would not buy swine flu vaccines until they are proven to be safe and without side effects. He said there was 'great pressure from pharmaceutical companies' to purchase the H1N1 shots.

Debate on the vaccines flared up in Poland with a deadly flu outbreak in Ukraine, Poland's eastern neighbor, where 189 people have died from flu-related symptoms.

[valpomike]

Way to go Tusk.


Mike

[Bonobo]

Poles smoke and drink while pregnant
25.03.2010 09:21

The Chief Sanitary Inspectorate has released alarming statistics that 14 percent of Polish women consume alcohol while pregnant and 38 percent smoke cigarettes.

The statistics are the result of a survey conducted by the Health Ministry and the Inspectorate in June 2009 in 382 clinics throughout Poland – about 3,300 women were polled.

“These statistics explain why there are so many babies lying in hospital incubators crying because they are addicted to alcohol or nicotine,” says Professor Anna Dobrzanska, one of the doctors who worked on the survey.

Despite such health risks, 11 percent of Polish women claim to smoke regularly while pregnant, 38 percent admit to having smoked cigarettes on occasion and 14 percent say that they have consumed alcohol while pregnant. One in one hundred women surveyed admitted to having taken narcotics while pregnant as well.

Health Minister Ewa Kopacz says that mothers must be provided with clear information about how their actions while pregnant affect their unborn child – both how it affects the baby’s weight, immune system, height and general health after birth.

“I am embarrassed to admit that I too am a female smoker – I was when I was pregnant and I smoked when I breast-fed,” admits Kopacz. (mmj)


Comments

* Karmenu of Malta 25.03.2010 10:42 The unborn child is a human being in its own right, in spite of his or her attachment to the mum's body through the placenta. There is no intermingling of blood, the two circulations being entirely separate, but only an exchange of gases and nutrients and other chemicals through semi-permeable membranes.

The oft quoted misconception that the unborn babe is part of the mother's body (and that therefore the mum can do with the babe whatever pleases her) is clearly false; and the pregnant mother and the father are in duty bound to protect the unborn babe. Taking alcohol and nicotine (cigarettes) in pregnancy is like pouring acid in the face of a one-year old son or daughter. Karmenu of Malta
* Maciej Skiba 25.03.2010 11:13 This is just disgusting, what's even more disgusting is that somehow the government relieves these people of their personal responsibility by suggesting it's the result of not enough education. Why don't we as a society start advocating personal responsibility instead of always looking for a scapegoat. To suggest in this day and age these people did not know the consequences of their actions is ridiculous. Why don't we call a spade a spade. It was nothing but selfishness on these people's part. Maciej Skiba
* Maciej Skiba 25.03.2010 11:17 Instead of spending my tax dollars telling these people the ill effects of smoking and drinking (which everybody knows) you might as well spend that money calling these people trash. Maciej Skiba
* Maciej Skiba 25.03.2010 11:46 I can see what is already going to happen, years from now another survey will be done and once again you will see a % of people doing these things, the problem? were not spending enough for education. So once again we will throw tens of millions of dollar for education, but years fr om now another survey will come out showing similar results. Whats going to happen? The government will once again come in and solve it by proposing more money on education. We need to realize there comes a point no matter how much money we spend trying to educate people its not going to change their vices.
Maciej Skiba
* Maciej Skiba 25.03.2010 12:04 Don't get me wrong I am not against educational programs. For example if people didn't know about the ill effects of smoking and drinking they need to be educated. But there is such a thing as the law of diminishing returns which states, "that we will get less and less extra output when we add additional doses of an input." We spend enough on education (more specifically informing them of these effects) that its safe to say these effects are common knowledge, so lets not waste taxpayer money. We do it to delude ourselves, we feel as long as the government is spending more money on this, I guess its good enough that I don't have to personally deal with it and I can continue with my own daily life. Maciej Skiba
* Skoy 25.03.2010 13:04 Let's not forget all the parents that are smoking in the presence of their (young) children. Pure selfishness. Skoy
* Maciej Skiba 25.03.2010 13:04 Almost forgot one thing, Health Minister's admission is admirable, its rare for a politician to admit to doing something wrong. Maciej Skiba
* Janusz E. Starkel 25.03.2010 13:06 While smoking is bad the real danger lurking untold around everyone. Go to liesnomore.net and read about deadly brakes. No media is talking about. Janusz E. Starkel
* John 25.03.2010 15:34 I combat my need for nicotine with traditional icelandic "nose or mouth tobacco". (See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snus#Cancer) This doesn't harm people around me, has not odour, it puts a minmal risk to myself (it hasn't been proved to cause cancer) and it is relatively cheap. John
* John 25.03.2010 15:35 Snus may be less harmful than other tobacco products; according to Kenneth Warner, director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network,

"The Swedish government has studied this stuff to death, and to date, there is no compelling evidence that it has any adverse health consequences. ... Whatever they eventually find out, it is dramatically less dangerous than smoking." John

www.thenews.pl/national/artykul128167_poles-smoke-and-drink-while-pregnant.html

[Bonobo]

Medical tourism boom in Poland
25.03.2010 10:11

Over 300,000 people come to Poland every year to take advantage of voluntary medical procedures at lesser prices than in Western Europe.

According to estimates from the Polish Association of Medical Tourism, between 300,000 and 330,000 people visit Poland annually and spend an average of 4,500 zloty (1,156 euro) on voluntary medical and dental procedures such as porcelain crowns , breast augmentation, or dental implants.

“Profits are up greatly – if we can maintain a high level of service, these competitive prices will promote themselves,” says Artur Gosk, head of PSTM.

On Wednesday, the Association agreed to form a consortium together with the Polish Tourism Organization (POT) and representatives of the country’s health industry.

“We want to invite the Health Ministry and local governments to cooperate with us to advertise medical tourism in Poland,” says Cezary Moski, deputy director of POT.

PTSM reports that people are coming to Poland mainly from Germany, the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries to seek cheaper medical treatment at Polish clinics. (mmj)

www.thenews.pl/business/artykul128170_medical-tourism-boom-in-poland.html

[valpomike]

Here in the USA many women smoke and drink when caring a child, and some do drugs and other bad things. We just hope the God will look out for the children.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Baby gets new bone marrow
02.04.2010 13:52

A 23 day-old baby has undergone a successful bone marrow transplant operation at the University Children’s Hospital in Krakow.

The little boy is already back home with his parents and sister, who donated the bone marrow.

Dr Jolanta Gozdzik, head of the transplants ward in the hospital, says the operation was possible thanks to a fast diagnosis. Doctors knew what was wrong with the baby boy when he was only two days old. Fortunately, a donor was also found in practically no time.

Such operations are rarely conducted on such small patients. Normally, the babies requiring the surgery are three to five months old.

Health minister Ewa Kopacz has just announced a national program to increase the dramatically small number of organ transplantations conducted in Poland. Some 45 percent of patients die before an organ is found for them. Last year, 1097 such operations were conducted in this country.

www.thenews.pl/national/artykul128744_baby-gets-new-bone-marrow-.html

[valpomike]

And most of all, with the help of the Lord.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Poland praised for anti-swine flu strategy
31.03.2010 06:37

The Council of Europe has praised Poland’s Health Minister Ewa Kopacz for her strategy against the swine flu virus.

The council’s Committee on Social, Health and Family Affairs said that the Health Ministry’s decision not to order any A/H1N1 vaccines, in spite of pressure from pharmaceutical companies and health organizations, was correct.

Ewa Kopacz (right) who went to Paris to explain her government’s response to the flu virus - which the World Health Organisation was wrongly predicting would turn into a full blown pandemic across Europe - said that Poland had considered buying an anti-flu vaccine but terms proposed by pharmaceutical companies were unacceptable.

Poland’s Health Minister said that thanks to the anti-swine flu strategy adopted in Poland fewer fatal cases of the virus were reported and the virus was less virulent than in other countries.

Paul Flynn, who wrote the Council of Europe report, called the decision “an act of courage” and stressed that other countries spent millions of euro on vaccines.

Former head of the French Red Cross Prof. Marc Gentilini said that Poland can serve as an example of how to handle the threat of an A/H1N1 pandemic.

The Health Ministry’s decision not to buy anti-flu vaccines was fiercely criticized in Poland during the outbreak. Ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski even threatened to sue Ewa Kopacz over the government’s policy. (mg/pg)


Comments


* Maciej Skiba 31.03.2010 11:07 Great job, for not falling for that BS. Maciej Skiba
* haiball 31.03.2010 11:32 And to think all those idiots who were jumping up and down threatening legal action.

Pani Ewa has not only saved lives, more importantly from the average Pole's point of view, she saved them money!!! haiball
* Jozek 31.03.2010 13:07 Where are the Emilie Green's of the world now?

Jozek
* Kilma 31.03.2010 14:31 I have never heard of someone in government being praised for doing nothing before. By not being prepared she endangered the lives of many. Look at what happened in Ukraine. I think we dodged this by good fortune, not good management. To say that her actions were a success and that the government can get away with doing nothing is foolish at best. We should not be singing her praises. Kilma
* R. Brzostek 31.03.2010 14:34 Ewa Kopacz, we salute you!

Thank God you have the good judgement to see that it was all a scam like the few thinking folks left in the world. R. Brzostek
* Nikki 31.03.2010 14:47 It's sad that you have been brainwashed Kilma that you do not realize the fear mongering that was spread in order to increase the profits of the pharma companies. More people die from the common flue that H1N1, there was no need to panic. What are we supposed to do, spend hundreds of millions of dollars each time an unsubstantiated claim of a pandemic is thrust upon us. You have your own money, you can always contact the pharma companies yourself if you want a shot, but don't expect tax payers to foot the bill because of your irrational fear. Nikki
* Nikki 31.03.2010 14:54 If I can add one more thing, I am not saying that pandemics can't occur, and its not like Poland wasn't prepared with quarantine procedures, but there is no reason to act prematurely by buying up millions worth of drugs when H1N1 didn't even rise up to the risk the simple common flu does and when the vaccine hasn't even been proven safe.
Nikki
* hairball 31.03.2010 15:32 @kilma
On the contrary she WASN'T prepared to risk peoples lives. And she didn't do nothing. She reviewed the evidence, declined to sentence Poles to death by paying millions for a vaccine the doesn't work. hairball
* Jasiek 31.03.2010 15:58 Another Polish lady I am all but falling in love with. The world may be entering the era when we see profoundly wise figures emerge from Poland one after another. Jasiek
* Maciej Skiba 31.03.2010 16:15 Hahaha Jasiek, love is in air : ) Maciej Skiba


www.thenews.pl/national/artykul128545_poland-praised-for-anti-swine-flu-strategy-.html

[Bonobo]

A soldier who lost his two hands in an explosion had them transplanted from a donor.

www.fakt.pl/m/Repozytorium.Obiekt.aspx/-580/-500/faktonline/634123837396917059.jpg

[Bonobo]

Again this topic....

Medical tourism boom in Poland
02.09.2010 10:57

Patients from the UK and western Europe are locking to Poland for dental work and medical treatment at prices they find extremely competitive.

According to the Chamber of Commercial Medical Tourism, in the first half of this year 120,000 foreign patients spent over 125 million euro at Polish clinics.

Each medical tourist spent on average 1,000 euros on treatment.

Foreigners decide to undergo treatment in Poland because it is much cheaper than in their home country, especially when it comes to plastic surgery and dentistry. Patients from the UK who need a tooth implant pay 1,500 euro for it at home but only 500 euro in Poland. Short waiting time and high quality of service are also the advantages of Polish medical service.

[Bonobo]

Quarter century anniversary of first Polish heart transplant
05.11.2010 13:52
It is 25 years since surgeons carried out the first heart transplant in Poland.

The operation was done on a 62 year-old by a team of doctors from Zabrze headed by pioneering professor Zbigniew Religa, who later went on to become a health minister in the Law and Justice government (2005-07).

Since then, surgeons in Zabrze have carried out almost 28 thousand operations, with almost 900 transplants of heart, heart and lungs, and heart and kidneys.

The Silesian Centre for Heart Diseases has gone on to operate on Poland’s youngest cardiac patient, a seven month-old toddler, and the oldest, a 103 year-old women.

[valpomike]

Again, I say, Poland leads in health care, and doctors. Most think otherwise, but I know better.

Mike

[Bonobo]

Nurse shortage feared after UK eases employment rules
12.05.2011 13:02

Great Britain is easing recruitment requirements for nurses from new EU member states, which may leave Poland facing yet another brain drain, this time in the health sector.

While Polish hospitals are already lacking at least 50,000 nurses, several thousand more of them could up and leave for Britain.

Until now, staff from new EU member countries, whose qualifications were not automatically recognized, were required to do half a year’s training. In line with the new regulations, a two-day skills test is enough to get a job, writes the Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily.

Around 12,000 Polish nurses have migrated for economic reasons since Poland’s entry into the European Union in 2004, according to estimates by a nurse’s trade union.

A decreasing number of young Poles are opting for the profession, says El¿bieta Buczkowska, head of the Main Chamber of Nurses and Midwives, who argues that low pay is one factor turning people away from nursing.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to convince the health minister that so long as the minimum wage is not set at the level of the national average in an employment contract, youth will not choose a job that offers 1,400 – 1,600 zloty [an equivalent of around 360 – 400 euro] basic pay,” stressed Buczkowska.

In March, several nurses carried out a hunger strike at the Lower House of Parliament, while around half a thousand nurses protested in front of the Parliament building in Warsaw.

The protesters demanded the resumption of employment contracts as the sole binding form of taking on the professional group in hospitals, which, they claim, has been detrimental to both nurses and patients.

While up to 220,000 nurses are registered in Poland, 200,000 of them being professionally active, as many as 15,000 Polish nurses work abroad.

[Bonobo]

Hospitals lack donors for transplants, report reveals
21.07.2011 14:30
A report by the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) has claimed that “the qualification system for transplant patients works well” in Poland, although cites problems as to the availablity of organs needed for transplantation.

The report finds that waiting patients are apparently treated equally, with no one jumping the queue. However, the office highlights that there are several matters for concern.

Above all, the NIK report assesses that, “there are too few organs available in relation to the number of people waiting for a transplant.”

The number of organs made available has in fact increased by 2 percent, but all of these were instances of where people died in institutions where transplants are permitted.

Poland has 410 hospitals where the dead can be identified as donors. However, the frequency of organs being made available has not been uniform, with NIK citing various problems, including opposition by relatives, as well as “lack of cooperation between departments and insufficient knowledge of some doctors in the procedures for reporting donors.”

NIK suggests that more could be done to promote organ donations by the living. Over the last four years, only 3.4 percent of kidney transplants came from so-called family donations, whereas in some countries that proportion is 45 percent.

Meanwhile, it has been noted that the time elapsing between initial kidney dialysis and transplant is increasing, whilst half of those trained to perform such operations do not have the work. (nh/jb)

Source: NIK/Gazeta Wyborcza

[Bonobo]

We went to a local clinic today to see a peadiatrician. A Spanish guy had come there to get a prescription for epilepsy drugs and the stuff were eplaining things to him. Both the female doctor and senior nurse (elderly lady!!) spoke English. With a heavy accent and mistakes (How much tablets do you take a day?) but very communicative. I was really impressed.

A funny scene:

Nurse: You will have to pay for the visit and prescription.
Spaniard: How much?
Nurse: One hundred.
Spaniard (stiffened) Euros?
Nurse: No, zlotys.
Spaniard (relieved): Gooood.



So, remember, if you have no Polish security number/insurance, you must pay 100 ZLOTYS for a visit.

However, I had to intervene when the women tried to send the guy to nearby pharmacies to check if the prescribed foreign medicine for epilepsy is available there. The guy would have to take a taxi and check on the spot. I asked them to look up telephone numbers to those pharmacies and find out about the medicine.