Health system in Poland one of the worst in Europe: report

wbj.pl/article-59140-polish-health-system-one-of-the-worst-in-europe-report.html

wow! I am surprised. I have never had any problem with public health care- I have had a minor operation and will have another in July. My youngest has had a few broken bones and our visits have all been ok.

I have had issues with medicover.

It variable. You can get ok service and you can also be given ridiculously long waiting times, like so long that you will be dead.

Individual hospitals can have very different standards of care, apparently

We pay for treatment as its affordable.

I pay 246zl a month health insurance and my provider is rubbish. The doctors seem to have a communist mentality and customer service and patient care is more then useless.

If i was seriously ill i'd crawl over broken glass to get back to the UK. The NHS is the greatest public health institution in the world.

I got a infection in my leg in Gdansk last summer. When it became too pain full to walk on it, the inlaws and wife brought me to the local hospital. I was see after maybe 40mins, had blood tests and ultra sound done within the 1.5 hour. I was out of hospital with leg all dressed up and injections to take for the next 5 days in about 2.5 hours. Even better, most of the doctors wanted to speck in English to me.

In Ireland you could be in the hospital for 6 or 8 hours, more if at night time as it would be full of drunken gobshits.

Here's the report. UK (12th) has risen above Germany (14th) for the first time.

healthpowerhouse.com/files/Report-EHCI-2012.pdf

Yeah, but there's a reason for that (see page 7):

"...the Austro-German ranking does suffer from the introduction of 9 new indicators in the EHCI 2012."

Whatever those 9 new indicators are.

patient access to information is a BIG one. I don't think I could have a lower opinion of this system than I already do. Like most of the problems here it comes down to corruption- where the heck does all the money go? Why is it that when millions of pln are wasted, the worst that happens is someone is fired. The degree to which people are affected by mismanagement must be considered and criminal prosecution must be a recourse when someone fails the taxpayers so completely.

what else can the government do, have the incompetent beaurocrat pay back the money? You know that's unlikely.

I had to compose myself after laughing after reading this comment...Both my parents have had to go private in the last 5 years because of waiting lists, they were in that much pain and that ill, the wait wasnt possible. I waited 12 weeks for one session of physio for a painful shoulder injury and we don’t start screening for cervical cancer until a woman is 25 which is disgusting...We are not the greatest health institute in the world, we just happen to free (well its not I pay through my NICs contributions)...Ever heard the term postcode lottery? I have had good experiences too, I have had excellent care when its been needed

Poland spend little, as a percent of its GDP, on health-care and with its small GDP its a double problem. Grow Polands economy and there will be more money to spend.

If your based in London Why the interest in Polish issue's. I my self am connected to the country, how are you. Are you just a troll?

Who are you talking to?

you put your city down as london.

Amathyst

Both my parents and my niece have had treatment for cancer over the last 5 years and all i can say is that the treatment was worldclass. Postcode lottery or not the NHS is one on the wonders of the world. I pay more tax in Poland then in the UK and a higher national insurance contribution and still pay private health insurance...so your cost arguement is 'out of the water.'

I've lived in Krakow for three years.

People, we can all post anecdotal evidence based on experience here. But it doesn't "prove" anything to other people who have experienced the opposite. I think we should avoid getting into contests with our comparisons of loss or hardship- I think it cheapens the experience to a degree. What we should be looking at are facts and how those facts are gathered (the process is even more important than the conclusions in my opinion).

Which is why we have reports like this.

My personal experiance of the NHS is very good, however, my local hospital is the Kensington and Chelsea. Located in the richest council in Europe probably helps with the quality.

telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8877412/NHS-among-best-health-care-systems-in-the-world.html

gponline.com/News/article/1095310/Competency-checks-EU-doctors-backed-top-GPs/

a couple of articles, one stating that the NHS is the best in the world... with low error rates and the second saying foreign doctors in the NHS need competency checks. I'd love to know how the training of a Polish and an English GP compares.

what I find more interesting is who actually sponsors these so called studies that seem to be universal. Fact is that every system has its good and bad.

It's not a surprise that someone would start this thread. I know a Polish guy who went back to Poland for a surgery. Well, they gave him the wrong surgery! He had to go back yet again for the correct one, but when he went back, the Polish doctor was working in Germany and wouldn't be back for several days. So he had to prolong that trip to wait for the doc. And even then, there was no guarantee that he would get an appointment when the doc returned. The medical office receptionist said she couldn't make any appointments until the doc showed up. Hello, there is something called a cell phone, or even texting or email. A beeper?! Sounds like a disorganized madhouse.

Hi Wizard

every time i speak to a polish doctor I question their competence. In the UK I feel alot more safer then in the Polish health system. GP's in the NHS do at least 10 years of training and education before being let anywhere near a person. They train in some of the best universities in the world. There was a study not long ago that said that Eastern European doctors working in the UK made twice the mistakes as Indian doctors. I worry.

that's right...the big London hospitals are really good, the provincial places much less so.

This isn't true at all....You'd be surprised for example that...Leeds has one of the best Kids hospitals in the world, Newcastle freeman hospital is one of the world leading Heart hospitals, Pinderfields near Leeds burn care. The NHS has centres of excellence throughout the UK and Northern Ireland which countries like Poland could only dream of. The UK has some of the world best teaching hospitals having worked in a couple i know the standard and thus the reason why I query Polish medical care.

But, never mind cos Peterwegs and his mate Cameron will probably go along with Tusk and say that the Polish healthcare is the Best in Europe and that it is improving 1 million percent year on year.

But then again what do us trolls know? ;)

I stand corrected, I was just being London-centric, but you must admit that these big city places are way above small town hospitals.
One time my stepmother actually took the train to London rather than turn up at A and E in her east coast town.

Hi Rozumiemnic

Having grown up and been born on the East Coast I can tell you that the hospitals are as good as London hospitals. In the UK there is a strict policy of regulation on all hospitals and health trusts and you'd be hard pressed to find a really 'bad one' in fact, and the truth is that as results have shown that medical staff from Eastern central Europe (over the old iron curtain) are woefully undertrained and make a higher proportion of mistakes, then you will probably be safer in an East coast hospital as the staff are more likely to be either British or Indian/Pakistani's (GP's with 10 years minimum training) and not get rich quick Polish/Latvian or Czech staff who have had poorer education and less international standard training .

well I don't know...you might have a point....

Umm, yea, because I started the thread about how bad Polish health-care is and my wife is a Nurse, so I know. And I go private in Poland.


I'd love to agree with you, my experience of the NHS has always been good. But UK came 12th out of 34 in Europe. No where near the best.

Hi Peter

I use private care in Poland and all i can say is that it's definately worse then the most useless of NHS trusts you may get a fast scan but the doctors wont even look at the scans/results unless you constantly badger them. The standard of care in Poland has more to do with the standard of teaching of medical staff and not the glossy facilities the hospitals have.

My mother was a nurse in the frontline NHS from 1965 until she retired last year (continously training to keep up her Nursing registration) and therefore I know the dedication and work that every worker puts into it. So what if it only came 12th in europe (the other 11 are part private i assume) my experiences and those of my friends and family are positive. In fact when my dad was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer the nhs gave him 500% care.

I'd love to see how the US compares.

someone should put that on the list of Tusk's achievements ;)