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The invasion of Ukraine continues. There is also a disinformation campaign aimed at discouraging Poles from becoming Ukrainians who flock to our country in search of shelter and safety. Recently, there have been rumors that Poles are being shifted in lines for medical help and released from hospital wards to make room for refugees. – It’s obviously not true. Everyone receives medical services according to the nature of the symptoms and the priority of their provision. It results directly from the constitution – emphasizes the drug. Bartosz Fiałek, rheumatologist, deputy medical director in the Independent Public Complex of Healthcare Institutions in Płońsk.
- There are entries online suggesting that refugees from Ukraine have priority admissions to hospitals and clinics
- Publications of this type are fake news, denied by both the Ministry of Health and Polish doctors
- – The decision to provide a medical service is based solely on the merits. (…) There is no possibility that a patient comes to us after a multi-organ trauma, after an accident, and a moment later a person from Ukraine comes with a backache for three months and is provided immediately, and a person who is in direct medical condition life threatening must wait – provides the drug. Bartosz Fiałek.
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“Trolling in the way of the aggressor”
Over the last few days, a lot of entries have appeared on the web, the authors of which assured that there was a huge problem with the availability of medical services for Poles. In one of them there was even bloodcurdling appearance the story of a 4-year-old boy who was ‘thrown out’ from an oncology hospital because it was necessary to make room for Ukrainian children.
As it turned out, this post came from an account that had been publishing anti-Ukrainian content for some time. The author (or the author) also suggested, inter alia, that children are segregated in cinemas because free screenings are offered only to Ukrainian children, and Polish children have to pay for the same.
Burza was also triggered by a tweet of Piotr Strzembosz, a former councilor of the Mazowieckie Voivodeship Sejmik, who swept the content of an alleged text message he had received from a friend. It showed that the person with a leg injury was not admitted to the hospital because it only admits Ukrainians and people with accidents.
Both entries met with an immediate response from healthcare professionals and the health ministry.
«Today (ie on March 1) we are admitting three Ukrainian children who urgently require bone marrow transplantation and the fourth one who will continue the treatment of lymphoblastic leukemia in our clinic. None of our patients were discharged home for this reason, and no Polish children will have delayed therapy. We create a separate additional ward for patients from Ukraine»- assured prof. Krzysztof Kałwak, head of the Clinic of Bone Marrow Transplantation, Oncology and Pediatric Hematology of the University Hospital in Wrocław.
«Beware of the spreading fake news about admitting only refugees to hospitals. This is not true! All incoming patients receive assistance in accordance with the triage and objective urgency of care! There is no preferential care! » – wrote Gilbert Kolbe, the male nurse.
«First-hand information from doctors and hospital management: Every patient, every child who goes to the hospital, regardless of nationality, is treated equally. Everyone finds professional care. There was no situation for Kasia from Ząbki. There is, however, a case of trolling according to the plans of the aggressor »- wrote the Ministry of Health.
«I would like to (…) deny the rumors and fake news that appear, for example, about the alleged priority of access to public services for people who come from Ukraine. In neither of these cases will we be dealing with privileging refugees. The citizens of Ukraine will not have rights and opportunities greater than Polish citizens in any of the areas»- Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki emphasized.
«Everyone is served the same»
We asked the drug about the current situation in Polish medical facilities and whether Polish patients should be concerned about access to services. Bartosz Fiałek, working at the hospital in Płońsk.
The suggestion that Polish patients are thrown out of wards and queues to specialists because of admitting people seeking shelter in Poland as a result of the war is clearly not true. We are dealing with enormous disinformation that is closely linked to Our Country’s military aggression against Ukraine. Yeah disinformation is not something new anyway, it has been with us for months. First in the form of questioning the existence of the new coronavirus and the dangers of COVID-19, then in the context of immunization, and now conspiracy theories have been redirected to war and what is associated with it, i.e. influx of refugees to Poland. This is a massive attack.
The doctor emphasizes that in Poland the right to health protection results directly from the constitution and the benefit will be provided to everyone in need. The order in which assistance is provided is determined by the substantive priority, medical indications and, in the case of emergency medicine, trios (procedure enabling segregation depending on the clinical state in terms of the degree of injury and prognosis – ed.).
– In the hospital where I work, each hitman is supplied according to the same algorithm. The decision to provide a medical service is based solely on substantive issues, whether a person requires assistance here and now and should be treated as an urgent case, whether assistance may be postponed, i.e. the patient will be hospitalized later or requires only outpatient advice and referral to a specialist clinic – explains. And adds:
– There is no possibility that a patient comes to us after a multi-organ injury, after an accident, and a moment later a person from Ukraine comes with a backache for three months and is provided immediately, and a person who is in a direct threat to life must wait. There has never been, and never will be, such a situation. Now we are simply providing benefits to more people, because we have more health needs due to the fact that Poles and Poles have been joined by people fleeing Ukraine as a result of Our Country’s military aggression towards Ukraine. Certainly though there are no changes in the queues for healthcare services. Everyone will receive them according to the nature of the symptoms and the priority of their provisioning – ensure.
The rest of the material for the video.
Hospitals respond as needed
In the hospital in Płońsk, people fleeing Ukraine are so far isolated cases, such as a woman who today asked for help with a post-traumatic problem. – Currently, we do not observe a significant increase in the number of advice, I do not see that 30 visits turned into 130 due to the outbreak of the war. There is increased traffic, but we are not recording very heavy pressure – says the drug. Bartosz Fiałek, emphasizing, however, that the situation is dynamic and that medical facilities are on standby and respond to current needs.
One of them is testing for COVID-19. Such a need was recently reported by, among others a parish whose parish priest took 25 refugees from Ukraine under his roof.
– We were asked to help organize antigen tests for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 infection, which of course we did immediately. Thanks to this, we were able to reduce the risk of the uncontrolled spread of the new coronavirus, which could lead to an outbreak of COVID-19, some of which would probably require hospitalization – he says.
The doctor, reassuring Poles about the availability of medical services, draws attention to one more fact.
– People who flee Ukraine due to the outbreak of war are conscious and responsible people. They are not accompanied by thinking such as: “I ran away to another country, so I will go see a doctor, although I am fine”. Citizens of Ukraine are going through a huge tragedy today, which is why any kind of help is absolutely right, she sums up.
The editorial board recommends:
- Free dental assistance for people from Ukraine. We have a list of offices
- Medical interview forms are also available in Ukrainian
- Refugees from Ukraine have to pay 100 percent. for prescription. Change maybe even this week
- The National Health Fund will cover the costs of benefits for refugees from Ukraine