In Poland, the long-standing crisis of the health care system, disputes over its shape, financing and the conditions of employment of medical staff have pushed the patient and his rights into the background. The changes undertaken in the health care system in recent years have focused basically exclusively on its organisation and financing. However, the system cannot be said to function properly if it does not provide for solutions that guarantee the patient the possibility of being a full and informed participant in every stage of the treatment process. Such guarantees can be created by an appropriately shaped catalogue of patients' rights and the implementation of solutions that ensure their actual realisation, including, in particular, the imposition of the necessary obligations on public authorities, entities performing treatment activities and persons providing health services to patients. The subject of this monograph is an analysis of the solutions that the Polish legislator has adopted in this matter.
From the Introduction