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Fewer children, fewer pediatricians

Fewer than 315,000 children were born in 2022, but about 15,000 were children of immigrants. This is the worst result since World War II. Demographers do not give the situation a chance to improve. Lack of housing, instability in the labor market, war in the neighbor. CBOS asked Polish women aged 18-45 about their plans to have a child. 68 percent of Polish women answered that they do not plan to get pregnant or do not know if they will. Only 17 percent confirmed plans to have a child. According to the same opinion poll center, in 2022, 42 percent did not plan to have offspring, and in 2017. 22 percent of Polish women. This portends a demographic disaster.

One of the problems reported by women is that pregnant women do not have quick access to health care facilities and doctors, especially in smaller centers. Often the only option is to use the private sector, and not everyone can afford it. We have about 7,000 beds in pediatric wards. There are counties, even cities, where there is not a single hospital bed for children, such as in the east of Poland. This is the case in Zamość and Zamojskie County, or in Przemyśl County, and there are only 20 beds in Przemyśl. The change in the way pediatrics is financed in 2020/2021 from flat-rate payments for services to paying only for procedures performed has led to the elimination of most pediatric wards in many smaller hospitals.

We have fewer and fewer pediatricians, which makes child health care more difficult. In 2020, we had 14 thousand pediatricians, 12.7 thousand of whom work in entities with contracts with the National Health Fund. In six years, nearly 3 thousand of them will reach retirement age, and in the course of pediatric specialization there are approx. 1.6 thousand young doctors. That is, we can count on a simple replacement of the cadre, but it is difficult to hope for greater availability. The Supreme Medical Council received a record number of applications for certificates for recognition of qualifications in other European Union countries in 2022. Among medics who plan to go abroad, both internal medicine specialists, anesthesiologists and psychiatrists dominate pediatricians. The reasons they want to leave Poland are: working conditions, opportunities for development, atmosphere and working hours, salary and hegemony.