Influx of refugees from Ukraine is perhaps the biggest challenge Polish medicine has ever faced - Minister of Health of Poland

The minister said this during the annual conference "Wizjonerzy Zdrowia", answering questions from journalists, Espreso.West reports.

The Polish Ministry of Health assures that they are ready to receive both wounded Ukrainian soldiers and patients with acute conditions and chronic diseases. They will be placed in 120 hospitals across the country. 7,000 beds were allocated for patients from Ukraine.

Every citizen of Ukraine, whether he needs hospitalization, outpatient treatment from a narrow specialist or a consultation with a family doctor, is guaranteed to receive assistance in Poland.

The department has already calculated: the cost of providing assistance to Ukrainians will exceed the costs associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.  Now there are more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees in Poland, and maybe more. The sums that will have to be given out to ensure that all those in need of medical care are estimated by the Poles at tens of billions of zlotys a year. The percentage of GDP allocated to the medical industry in Poland has already increased from 6% to 7%. In the country, we recall, only 4.2% was allocated for current needs.

The Polish minister also recalled the problem of relocation of patients with chronic diseases to other EU countries, which will at least partially relieve the healthcare system in Poland. By this time, the Polish Ministry of Health had successfully transported only 26 patients from Ukraine to other EU countries for treatment. These are predominantly cancer patients and AIDS patients requiring long-term therapy.

According to the minister, Poland initiated the creation of a mechanism for financing the costs of medical care for refugees from Ukraine, in particular, it proposes to create a separate fund. This initiative has already been supported by 11 EU countries.  Among them is Germany.

One of the biggest problems in Poland is the shortage of medical personnel, and it has been going on since the 1990s, when many doctors emigrated from the country.  According to Adam Nedzhelsky, Poland already has a law allowing foreign doctors to work under a simplified procedure.  Recently, more than 1.2 thousand specialists have come to work here.

Another step designed to increase the number of medical personnel in Poland is to increase the number of students in medical universities in Poland.

The Poles also managed to finally settle the issues of minimum wages in the healthcare sector.