Nurses appeal for expansion of competences. "The system loses the chance to relieve the burden"

• The new preventive program "My Health" allows patients to receive a free package of preventive tests
• According to data from the e-Health Center, the people who most often come for tests are 20- and 30-year-olds, i.e. people who were not given the opportunity to be tested under the previous "Prophylaxis 40 Plus" program
• The College of Family Nurses and Midwives would like to point out that due to the lack of a signature under the regulation prepared by the Ministry of Health, primary care nurses and midwives cannot order tests covered by the program.
• Although they can independently refer patients for diagnostic tests as part of primary healthcare services, they are still excluded from most of the tests offered as part of "Moje zdrowie" - explains Jolanta Łysak, president of the College of Family Nurses and Midwives in Poland

A new preventive program, "My Health", has been in operation for a little over a month, replacing the previous "Prophylaxis 40 Plus". In the current one, the threshold for a free package of tests for patients has been lowered to 20 years of age. The forms on the basis of which qualification for individual tests is made were filled out by over 260 thousand people within a month .

As Jolanta Łysak, president of the College of Family Nurses and Midwives in Poland, points out, the programme is missing one key element for nurses and midwives - the possibility of implementing the programme by primary care nurses and primary care midwives who independently contract services from the National Health Fund.

- Although, in accordance with their statutory powers, they can independently refer patients for diagnostic tests as part of primary healthcare services, they are still excluded from most of the tests offered as part of "Moje zdrowie" - explains Łysak.

The possibility of including nurses and midwives in the program was to be provided by a regulation of the Minister of Health expanding the catalog of diagnostic tests ordered by them. The project has passed consultations, but the regulation has not yet been signed.

- Despite their competences and readiness to act, nurses and midwives still cannot independently order tests covered by the program. As a result, patients, instead of taking advantage of wider access to prevention, still have to wait for a doctor's appointment, and the system loses the chance to actually relieve the burden - assesses Łysak.

- This situation shows that even the best designed health programs have no chance of success without efficient legislative implementation and real inclusion of all eligible professional groups. The Ministry of Health should complete the formal process as soon as possible and enable nurses and midwives to fully participate in the program, which is supposed to improve public health and shorten queues for doctors - adds the president of the College of Family Nurses and Midwives in Poland.

Copyrighted material - reprint rules are specified in the regulations .