Polish System of Out-of-Court Compensation for Medical Injuries

Abstract

One of the most serious problems in proceedings intended to repair personal injury caused while treating a patient is an attempt to reconcile two divergent interests – the interest of the injured party and the interest of the party responsible for repairing said damage. This leads to lengthy lawsuits, escalation of court costs and sometimes to the aggrieved parties’ giving up their pursuit of recompense for the injury caused to them. This is why research and legislative attempts are being taken up throughout the world to aid the aggrieved patient in obtaining compensation. These legislative works and the related comparative research have contributed to the introduction in countries such as New Zealand, Sweden or France of alternative systems of remedying medical injuries. In Poland a system based on 16 commissions for the evaluation of medical incidents has been in operation since 1 January 2012. The Polish system was intended to mirror foreign models which exercised the principle of facilitating the patient in obtaining quick, inexpensive and certain recompense for the injury suffered during medical treatment. The Polish system, despite the legislator’s declarations, has not sufficiently drawn on foreign models. It is unique and completely novel in the world scale, which does not, however, translate into its effectiveness. The aim of this paper is to present to a foreign reader the premises of liability and the proceedings before voivodship commissions for evaluating medical events. This paper intends to demonstrate the main mistakes made by the Polish legislator so that other countries can avoid wrong models during their own legislative works. Moreover, the conclusions present proposals of legislative amendments which would improve the operation and effectiveness of the commissions.