What are Polish patients complaining about? The pandemic has brought new problems

Patient complaints to the Patient Ombudsman have been practically the same for many years and concern the quality of hospital care: from improperly diagnosed health problems to early discharge from the hospital ward. What else do Polish patients complain about?

1. According to many patients, the continuity of treatment is lacking. For example, when a patient reports to the HED with a fracture, but after treatment, he does not receive instructions on how to proceed
2. People lack information about where to go after plaster removal and where to go for rehabilitation
3. Patients have reservations about the lack of recommendations for diagnostic tests, and sometimes even refusal to issue such a referral
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.

Edyta Brzozowska, Medonet: Did the year 2021 differ from the previous ones in terms of complaints filed by the Patients’ Ombudsman?

Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, Patient Rights Ombudsman: It was comparable to the previous one. We recorded over 140 thousand. various types of signals, of which 110 thousand. it was received via the hotline that we run together with the National Health Fund. Poles wrote almost 30 thousand. individual written complaints. Many of them, around 10, concerned people in a mental crisis.

It was an intense year, also in relation to collective proceedings, i.e. situations in which we have seen that although the practices or medical facilities do not apply to a specific patient, they translate into a problem for many people. Therefore, we initiated 182 proceedings for infringement of collective patient rights and issued nearly 200 decisions. The difference is that some of them started back in 2020.

What were the most frequent irregularities in the second year of the pandemic?

I must point out here that the time of the pandemic almost completely reversed the structure of the signals of anomalies. Before the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, patients complained the most about hospital treatment, followed by specialist outpatient care. Before 2020, primary health care, i.e. general practitioners, was rated the best.

The reason for this change was the fact that the medical tele-advice system caused a lot of controversy?

Not only that, although patients were really disappointed with the form of on-line and telephone consultations, which replaced traditional medical consultations.

However, the basic problem was that during the successive waves of the pandemic, primary health care units changed the registration method to the telephone one. Thus, there was a seemingly prosaic problem with getting to the facility, and thus with getting to the family doctor. When the patient managed to connect to the registration after many attempts, another problem appeared on the road. This time related to the distant date of the visit. After all, illness is usually an emergency and we have the right to expect admission to the doctor’s office as soon as possible. Preferably on the day of reporting, and certainly when our child is ill.

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There was also the issue of home medical visits in the complaints?

Yes. Most often in cases where assistance was required not only by small children, but also by the elderly or people with disabilities.

In addition, patients’ reservations were raised by the lack of referrals for diagnostic tests, sometimes even a refusal to issue such a referral. And also long waiting times for a prescription when treatment was continued and the patient ran out of medications.

How did outpatient specialist care work in the covid year?

There were certainly fewer problems with calling this type of facility, however, patients struggled with both the long dates of consultations with specialist doctors and the cancellation of previously arranged appointments. Sometimes even with refusal to register.

During the pandemic, there was also a problem with diagnostic tests?

Patients complained about being sent to other doctors, for example to a GP, in order to complete such tests. There is also the issue of the so-called accompanying benefits, such as medical transport or issuing a certificate of temporary incapacity to work.

The theme of teleporting was again present in the complaints about outpatient specialist care. For example, when the doctor did not call at the appointed time, which complicated the patients’ life plans. Or that he didn’t call at all. Patients also complained about the quality of the calls.

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What can be said about hospital treatment?

The problems have been practically the same for many years and usually concern the quality of this care. Starting from improperly diagnosed health problems, after – according to patients – too early discharge from the hospital ward. A frequent reason for complaints was that patients were not provided with continuity of treatment after leaving the facility. For example, when a patient came to the HED with a fracture, but after treatment, he did not receive instructions on how to proceed. People lacked information about where to report after removing the plaster or where to go for rehabilitation.

In the public space, you could hear patients complaining about canceling the planned treatment. Do the complaints addressed to the Patients’ Rights Ombudsman confirm this?

Yes. Added to this were the long waiting times for planned treatment. But there is another group of signals – the one about the National Immunization Program. This phenomenon intensified at the turn of April and May last year. There was a so-called a flexible schedule that every Pole after the age of 18 could join. The consequence was about 4 thousand. complaints about the chaos in vaccine availability.

Speaking of vaccinations: have there been times when doctors refused to help unvaccinated people?

Although there were not many such complaints, we reacted to such situations immediately. Such cases are illegal. I would like to point out that our actions are mainly based on intervention. We undertake it when we see that the scale of the problem is serious and it affects people with disabilities, pregnant women or when there is a direct threat to the patient’s life. Then we immediately contact the facility: in person, by phone or e-mail. We estimate the number of such activities at several thousand. annually.

How do facilities and individual doctors react to the interventions of the Patient Ombudsman?

Our involvement is usually effective, and institution employees rarely contest these interventions.

Of course, not always and not in every situation, it is the patient who is right. We realize that patients or their families may be frustrated at being diagnosed with a serious disease or by long-term therapy, which, in addition, does not bring the expected results. Nevertheless, we thoroughly investigate each complaint. Our employees have the right to visit places that patients are worried about without prior notice. Everyone’s wish would be for the Polish health care system to be flawless. Unfortunately, he is far from perfect, which is why our special role is to care for patients’ rights and support them.

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