The number of complaints addressed to the Patient Ombudsman is increasing. Patients make serious allegations

Recently, the public learned the story of an 85-year-old woman from Wałbrzych who died in the hospital emergency department (ER) without receiving help. According to the accounts of the senior’s relatives, quoted by Rynek Zdrowia, no one took care of her.

Grandma was placed in a hospital bed in the corridor and we were told to wait in the waiting room. We were not allowed to go further to be with her. However, through the ajar door we could see that she was alive and moving. When another patient was brought in over an hour later and we looked in on her again, it turned out that they had left her as they had brought her. No tests were ordered. At first we thought she was sleeping, but when my wife came closer, she saw that grandma was not breathing and no one had even noticed it – the woman’s grandson told Rynek Zdrowia.

According to the descriptions of the deceased’s relatives, the medical staff reacted only when they were alerted by the family. The case was taken up by the prosecutor’s office. The Patient Rights Ombudsman, Bartłomiej Chmielowiec, also initiated an investigation. The Ombudsman is receiving more and more complaints about the improper functioning of the healthcare system. The upward trend has been visible since 2017.

The number of complaints to the MPC is growing rapidly

Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of complaints submitted to the Patient Ombudsman. In 2023, nearly 100,000 reports were recorded. For comparison, in 2017 their number was 61,218. Most of them concern hospital treatment, but the quality of primary and outpatient health care is also questioned. Every year, the MPC receives approximately 2-3 thousand complaints about the activities of Emergency Services.

We looked at what is the biggest pain point for patients. It turns out that complaints usually concern violations of patients’ rights to health care services consistent with current medical knowledge. This includes situations such as failure by medical staff to take action, downplaying the symptoms reported by the patient, or leaving a foreign body in the patient’s body. Reports also include aspects related to the violation of the right to dignity and privacy, informed consent to medical services, and receipt of medical documentation.

Patients in hospital emergency departments usually reported irregularities in sending patients from the emergency department without performing appropriate tests or conducting incomplete diagnostics. It is worth emphasizing that the case of an 85-year-old woman from Wałbrzych, who died without receiving, as indicated by her family, appropriate care from medical personnel, is not an isolated case. In 2023, the Patient Rights Ombudsman conducted explanatory proceedings in the case of a 36-year-old who reported to the emergency department in Piła and to the admissions office in Złotów.

How to report a complaint to the Patient Ombudsman?

You can submit a complaint to the Patient Ombudsman in several different ways:

• in writing (to the following address: Office of the Patient Ombudsman, ul. Płocka 11/13, 01-231 Warsaw),

• electronically (by sending an appropriate message to (email protected)

• via the Electronic Platform of Public Administration Services (ePUAP mailbox address: /RzPP/skrytka),

• in person at the office of the Patient Ombudsman (orally in the minutes prepared during the meeting with a BRPP employee).

People who want to file a complaint can report to the MPC office five days a week (on Mondays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and from Tuesday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m.). The person submitting the complaint should provide his name and surname, as well as his mailing address. Otherwise it will not be considered.