The Medical Centre for Postgraduate Education (CMKP) in Warsaw, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation (WHO), has launched a course for medical professionals who have come from Ukraine and want to work in the Polish health service. The training is free of charge and concerns the organisation of health care in Poland.

So far, doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives and paramedics, mainly from Ukraine, have submitted more than 7,000 applications to the Minister of Health for employment on the basis of the simplified procedure.

The course will be available free of charge online for 12 months on an online platform in the form of lectures-videos delivered in Polish with subtitles in Ukrainian. Each registered participant of the course will receive a certificate. The course is funded by the WHO.

Project coordinator Professor Mateusz Jankowski of the CMKP School of Public Health said that after 24 February 2022, a large number of medical personnel have arrived in Poland from Ukraine.

“The course responds to the current challenges of medical staff migration due to the geopolitical situation. Two key barriers preventing the professional activation of medical professionals from Ukraine have been identified: the language barrier and the systemic barrier related to the lack of knowledge of the healthcare system in Poland”, says Prof. Jankowski.

In March last year, after the outbreak of war in Ukraine, free Polish language courses were organised for medics who came to Poland. Nearly one and a half thousand people completed the course.

The current course “Organisation of health care in Poland” should bring the basic information on the organisation of health care necessary for the provision of medical services by persons who have obtained their professional qualifications outside Poland. The training is organised by the Medical Centre for Postgraduate Education in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation, which covers the costs.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński