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Wednesday, September 20, 2017
The poor wages and a great shortage of doctors in Poland turns onto new drastic way. The 59-year old male surgeon from W?oszczowa,[1] the 28-year old female GP from Niepo?omice [2] (both southern Poland) and the 59-year old male gynecologist from Lipno (central Poland)[3]. What they all have in common? These doctors recently were found dead while being on call. Unfortunately, the toll is much higher and listed doctors passed away only during couple of weeks (August-early September 2017). While the exact causes of their deaths are still under investigation, each time the story is nearly identical. All of them were working in multiple healthcare facilities and died after many hours spend at work and often before starting another on call. The W?oszczowa’s doctor was on duty for 24 hours in the general surgery department and afterwards he has been scheduled to immediately start another on call at the A&E department, which he did not live up to.1 Let all of them rest in peace. But how we get that happen and why?
The working conditions are forcing doctors to work more and more. Having just 2.3 doctors per 1000 population, Poland is one of the last places in OCED’s health care report[4]. The average hourly junior doctor’s salary is equivalent to £2.61(3.13€), while specialists typically receive £3,23 (3,87€)/hour[5]. Not surprisingly, nearly 90% of polish doctors reported need of working over-hours to make a living, which ends up spending on average >70 hours per week at work[6]. Recent National Labor Inspectorate (PIP) report showed that 23% of evaluated hospitals did not respect workers’ rest time[7]. But core of the problem is also reflected in the doctor’s demographic statistics. The mean polish doctor age is among the highest in the EU (54,5 years). Moreover polish doctors live shorter than average life expectancy in Poland (even 11 years shorter, based on the single-province study)[8].
Despite mass doctors’ protests started in June last year,[9] the government have not decided to change much of health care professionals work conditions. At the beginning of October polish junior doctors will start another protest – hunger strike. The main point is to set up proposed fixed minimal compensation for different types of healthcare workers. Hopefully, there may will come the times, we will never hear again about the death of an over-worked doctor in Poland.