Accessibility to healthcare services in Poland at the initial stage of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic – patient perspective

Abstract

Introduction and objective The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a great challenge for the Polish healthcare system. This event had a significant impact on the availability of healthcare services and the exercising of patient rights due to the need to secure current requirements related to the pandemic. The aim of the article is presentation of the issue of availability of health services for Polish patients throughout the initial period of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Review methods The analysis covered the period from 1 March 2020–31 December 2020 and was based on a review of the literature, as well as the available official documents (reports, expert documents prepared by or on behalf of the Ministry of Health, the Patient Ombudsman, and the National Health Fund). The researchers focused on the following main problems: accessibility to healthcare services, telemedicine as a part of primary healthcare, maternity care, and exercising of the right of family members to say last goodbye to the patient. Brief description of the state of knowledge Poland, during the discussed period, patients most often reported issues related to accessibility to healthcare. They encountered difficulties with all types of healthcare services, in primary healthcare, specialized outpatient healthcare, or hospital care. Summary The study shows the need for the implementation of procedures resulting in the undertaking of actions aimed at respecting and exercising of patient rights, as well as the need to continue the implementation of standards in the provision of healthcare using telemedical solutions.

Keywords

• patient
• patient rights
• availability of services
• health services
• sars-cov-2 pandemic