Doctors are calling for a veto from President Karol Nawrocki. This concerns doctors from Ukraine.

• The medical self-government appeals to President Karol Nawrocki to veto the law restoring one of the simplified procedures for obtaining the right to practice for doctors from Ukraine.
• Medics warn that people admitted to work by the decision of the Minister of Health are not subject to appropriate verification in terms of knowledge of the Polish language and professional qualifications.
• The President of the Supreme Medical Council, Łukasz Jankowski, is to talk to the Minister of Health, Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda, asking her to consider abolishing all simplified procedures.

"After five years of talks with governments and due to a lack of understanding of the problem, we are forced to ask President Karol Nawrocki for a veto and legislative initiative," Jakub Kosikowski , spokesman for the Supreme Medical Chamber, said during a press conference on Thursday (August 14). This concerns the possibility of doctors from Ukraine taking up employment under simplified rules (without diploma recognition).

The President of the Supreme Medical Council, Łukasz Jankowski, is also scheduled to meet today with the Minister of Health, Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda , to convince her to change the regulations.

"A legal mess has been created," Łukasz Jankowski said bluntly during the conference. He explained that there are currently four groups of doctors working in Poland, only some of whom are supervised by medical chambers . The rest have received approval from the Minister of Health to practice their profession, despite the lack of verification of their ability to communicate in Polish or the authenticity of the qualifications they present.

In short, Ukrainian physicians can obtain permission from the minister to perform a specific range of professional activities (e.g., if they performed an ultrasound examination in their home country, they can do it in Poland, at a specific medical facility). Until October 2024, they could work without these restrictions, also based on the consent of the Minister of Health.

This procedure was particularly criticized by the medical self-government. No one checked whether Ukrainian doctors spoke Polish correctly, nor were their professional qualifications verified. The consequences of this state of affairs were widely publicized when it was revealed that journalists from "Uwaga TVN" had easily obtained a prescription for fentanyl online by providing the contact information of then-Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna . It later emerged that the person issuing the prescription had obtained the right to practice thanks to the Minister of Health's approval, issued on the basis of a false diploma.

This controversial procedure is to be restored in the amendment to the law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens in connection with the armed conflict on the territory of that country, which will soon be sent to President Karol Nawrocki's desk.

In the appeal of the Presidium of the Supreme Medical Council dated August 12, 2025, we read that the government consistently fails to include the local government in public consultations containing provisions on simplified procedures for obtaining the right to practice as a physician and dentist.

The Presidium argues that medics from across the eastern border may have lower qualifications because the educational programs at Ukrainian medical universities often do not meet the standards in force in Poland, and therefore do not guarantee that such people will apply up-to-date medical knowledge.

The NRL also has doubts about the lack of professional responsibility of persons performing health services based on the decision of the Minister of Health, and who do not have the right to practice medicine.

- There are no transparent mechanisms for supervising these people, which raises justified concerns as to whether and to what extent they are subject to the provisions of the Code of Medical Ethics - we read in the appeal of the NRL presidium.

Jakub Kosikowski tells us that the National Institute of Health receives notifications from regional chambers about cases where doctors' contracts are terminated due to their lack of adequate Polish language skills. Furthermore, local governments are asked to provide information on cases handled by the prosecutor's office.

Communication problems – for obvious reasons – only affect doctors from abroad. The Ombudsman is unable to say whether the number of cases involving problems with Ukrainian doctors' medical knowledge differs from those involving domestic doctors.

The medical self-government demands the immediate removal from the legal system of all simplified procedures for obtaining the right to practice medicine, while maintaining the rights acquired by persons who have already obtained the appropriate qualifications on their basis.

The NRL appeals to President Karol Nawrocki not only to veto the bill, but also to take a legislative initiative aimed at completely eliminating simplified procedures, which is "necessary to ensure patient safety and maintain the coherence and transparency of the healthcare system in Poland."

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