Background: Due to the significant staff shortages, emigration of health professionals is one of the key challenges for many healthcare systems. Objective: The aim of this article is to explore the estimated trends and directions of emigration among Polish health professionals. Methods: The emigration phenomenon of Polish health professionals is still under-researched and the number of studies in this field is limited. Thus, the authors have triangulated data using two methods: a data analysis of five national registers maintained by chambers of professionals (doctors, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, pharmacists, and laboratory diagnosticians), and data analysis from the Regulated Profession Database in The EU Single Market. Results: According to the data from national registers, between 7–9% of practicing doctors and nurses have applied for certificates, which confirm their right to practice their profession in other European countries (most often the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Spain, and Ireland). The relatively high number of such certificates applied for by physiotherapists is also worrying. Emigration among pharmacists and laboratory diagnosticians is rather marginal. Conclusions: Urgent implementation of an effective mechanism for monitoring emigration trends is necessary. Furthermore, it is not possible to retain qualified professionals without systemic improvement of working conditions within the Polish healthcare system.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of a short research project, conducted in 2010 as part of a larger EU funded action investigating the participation and impact of doctors in management. The authors sought to compare the ways in which hospital doctors in the UK and Poland – countries with distinct histories – participate in management; whether they are converging and whether the type of participation found results from changes in the governance and management of these systems. Design/methodology/approach – First, a review of existing evidence and an analysis of policy documents and healthcare statistics were conducted. Identifying a lack of empirical data in the Polish context, and a potentially changing situation in the UK, the authors proceeded to collect some exploratory data in Poland, via interviews with expert informants, and to draw on data collected alongside this study in the UK from qualified doctors participating in research on management and leadership development. Findings – Hospital doctors currently hold similar types of management role in both systems, but there are signs that change is underway. In Poland, different types of medical manager and role are now emerging, whereas in the UK younger doctors appear to be expecting greater management responsibility in the future, and are starting to take up the management training now on offer. Research limitations/implications – The potential implications of these changes for the profession and policymakers in both Poland and the UK are discussed, with opportunities for further research highlighted. Originality/value – The paper provides a comparison of how medical engagement within two systems with different histories is occurring, and also of the changes underway. It provides some much needed initial insight via interviews with expert informants within the polish system, which has been under-researched in relation to the involvement of medicine in management.

eHealth is a fast growing area of health care. Its development is strongly supported by the European Commission (EC). In Poland, eHealth is connected mainly to medical information systems. Little attention is given to its clinical aspects. The paper aims at describing barriers and opportunities of public eHealth development in Poland. It is based on desk search studies and interviews conducted in Poland in the spring of 2015. An attempt to estimate size of the eHealth market was made. In the study 227 eHealth (and related) tenders announced in 2009-2015 (first half of the year) were identified and analysed. The results show that eHealth is still underdeveloped in Poland, and that it is not effectively supported by central government and the National Health Fund, the public purchaser of health services, which still does not recognize eHealth as a medical procedure. Identified eHealth initiatives can be described as pilot projects.

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E-health has experienced a dynamic development across the European Union in the recent years and enjoys support from the European Commission that seeks to achieve interoperability of national healthcare systems in order to facilitate free movement. Differences that can be observed between the member states in legal regulations, cultural approaches and technological solutions may hinder this process. This study compares the legal standing of e-health in Denmark, Poland, Spain and the UK, along with key legal acts and their implications. The academic literature review along with an analysis of materials found through the desk study research (reports, legal acts, press articles, governmental web pages and so on) was performed in order to identify aspects relevant to e-health interoperability. The approach to legal regulation of e-health substantially differs by country. So do the procedures that they have developed regarding the requirement for patient's consent for the processing of their data, their rights to access to the medical data, to change the data, data confidentiality and types of electronic health records. The principles governing the assignment of responsibility for data protection are also different. These legal and technological differences must be reconciled if interoperability of European national e-health systems is to be achieved. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Development of e-health in Poland has suffered from multiple setbacks and delays. This paper presents views on and experiences with implementation of e-health solutions of three groups of respondents: buyers, suppliers and external experts with the aim of establishing to what extent and in what way e-health development was taking place in Polish public health care and if there were any national policy targets or European targets influencing this development. It is based on desktop studies and interviews conducted in Poland in the spring and summer of 2015. The interviews largely confirmed findings from the desktop study: legal obstacles were the decisive factor hindering the development of e-health, especially telemedicine, with extensive insufficiency of basic IT infrastructure closely following. Stakeholders were deterred from engaging with telemedicine, and from procuring e-health using non-standard procedures, from fear of legal liability. Some doctor’s resistance to e-health was also noted. There are reasons for optimism. Amendment to the Act on the System of Information in Health Care removed most legal obstacles to e-health. The Polish national payer (NFZ) has started introducing reimbursement for remote services, though it is still too early see results of these changes. Some doctors′ reluctance to telemedicine may change due to demographic changes in this professional group, younger generations may regard ICT-based solutions as a norm. In the same time, poor development of basic IT infrastructure in Polish hospitals is likely to persist, unless a national programme of e-health development is implemented (with funds secured) and contracting e-health services by NFZ is introduced on a larger scale.

Summary Purpose To present and discuss the findings of surveys on the profiles of hospital CEOs in Poland, as carried out in 2012 and 2017, involving over a hundred hospital CEOs at various reference levels. Findings The findings indicate appreciable changes in the group under study. While until recently, a typical hospital CEO was a male physician; presently, there is a fair proportion of women (36%). The majority of CEOs are non‐physicians (63%), whereas previously, they accounted for approximately 63% of them. Mean work experience in public health care for male CEOs tends to decrease, whereas an opposite trend is well manifested with regard to female CEOs. It was also established that hospital CEOs were steadily less keen on improving their professional qualifications through postgraduate courses. Conclusion These changes may imply a kind of “stabilisation” within the sector itself or a departure from the all‐male, medicine‐centred model of hospital management. They may have been caused by climbing expectations regarding overall management expertise and a higher salary level offered to physicians. Changes in individual work experience seem to indicate that men are more often “transplanted” from other industry sectors, whereas women tend to pursue their entire career path in public health care institutions.

This article presents the results of analyzes carried out on all provincial (voivodeship) outbreak action plans in the event of an epidemic in Poland. Voivodeships are obliged to prepare such documents by the law, however, its provisions are imprecise, therefore the content of the plans is diversified. The analytical parts of the documents do not contain basic information (like demographics). The entries are often based on the opinions of the authors and not the data, so the plans are not evidence-based. Although the plans were usually updated before or during the COVID-19 outbreak in Poland, references to the coronavirus are fragmentary. The differences between the plans and their (mostly) poor quality seem to be the result of a mixture of imprecise legislation, lack of ability to write plans, and risk avoidance. This makes the existing documents of little implementation value in the face of the emerging coronavirus threat.