Udział organizacji pacjentów w kształtowaniu polityki ochrony zdrowia w Polsce – „koszmar partycypacji” czy remedium na „deficyt demokracji”?
Participation of patient organizations in shaping the healthcare policy in Poland: “the nightmare of participation” or a remedy for the “democratic deficit”?

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this article is to analyze the healthcare policy in the light of securing citizens’interests by bringing the perspective of patients’ advocacy organizations. The papertries to supplement the discussion on the role of this particular group of stakeholders in thedecision-making process in the healthcare sector. Referring to empirical examples, theauthor assumes that the entire Polish healthcare system does not serve patients’ interestswell because of organizational, financial and personnel shortages, while the constitutionalpromise of equal access to healthcare services is paradoxically an effective barrier to anychanges aimed at improving the way of functioning of the system. Despite the impressionof a “patient-centered turn” in the healthcare policy in Poland, the organized interests ofpatients centered around advocacy organizations still have little impact on the process offormulating and implementing important changes in this sector policy.

• Details
• Contents