The Public Health Congress 2022 lasted two days. The first one featured the inaugural lecture, presentations and expert debates.
Inaugural lecture entitled "Noble health!" was given by Zbigniew Jagiełło, manager, strategist, innovator, for many years President of the Management Board of PKO BP. He presented three areas of public health that should be developed. - The first thing is prevention and health education, I have in mind primarily education in schools, because this is when we develop eating habits. I propose the accumulation of funds and the so-called pilots, i.e. we do not distribute funds evenly, but select a few schools to implement a health program, and after a few years we show the effects - said Jagiełło. Another issue is health expenses. The former President of PKO BP emphasized, that they must be transparent because it builds patients' trust. - It is worth introducing a program of transparent expenses, for example at the beginning for all 58-year-olds. It would be necessary to calculate the annual health premium paid by each 58-year-old and how much does his/ her treatment cost in a given year - and send this information to the patient. Then it could be extended to other patients. Last element is digitalization. The more medical activities will be digitized and available to doctors and patients, the easier the treatment process will become - stressed Zbigniew Jagiełło.
The inaugural lecture was an introduction to the debates. The first was led by Prof. Mariusz Gujski, head of the Department of Public Health and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at WUM. The debate focused on the most urgent topic today, i.e. the refugee crisis and its impact on the health of the population. The subjects included the methods of introducing medics from Ukraine into Polish structures. As Małgorzata Zadrożna from the Ministry of Health informed, the ministry now has over 5,000 applications for work permits for Ukrainian doctors and dentists, plus ca. 2,000 requests from nurses and midwives. The process of reviewing them lasts long. That is why experts suggested that for the time being Ukrainian medics should be employed even in lower positions than those they occupied in their country. This will speed up learning the language, and at the same time will allow them to better understand the organization of the health care system in Poland.
The debate on the epidemiology of infectious and lifestyle diseases was also interesting. It was attended by, among others, Proffesor Alicja Wiercińska-Drapało, head of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Tropical Diseases and Hepatology of the MUW and Professor Bolesław Samoliński, head of the Department of Prevention of Environmental Threats, Allergy and Immunology of the MUW. Professor Wiercińska-Drapało commented on the increase in HIV infections. - So far, we have had a fairly stable situation, we have recognized about 1,200-1,300 new infections per year. After the pandemic, this number increased, as did the number of patients who came to us very late. This happened because patients had limited access to diagnostics and were not diagnosed during the pandemic. The infection was diagnosed later, therefore we are now seeing increase in the statistics - explained the professor. The problem of accessibility was also raised in Professor Samoliński’s speech. “The number one challenge for any healthcare system is accessibility, and here we have dramatically tough situation, that has gotten much worse during COVID-19. Life expectancy in our country has shortened by two years - from 82 to 80 years for women and from 74 to 72 years for men - emphasized the Professor.
Pharmaceutical care was also discussed during the congress, and experts discussed how pharmacists can contribute to improving the health care system. Another debate involved psychiatry and neurology. Here we had two main threads: diagnosis and treatment of epilepsy and addictions. Professor Marcin Wojnar, head of the Psychiatric Department and Clinic of the MUM talked about modern methods of treating nicotine addiction in people with mental disorders. There were also talks on the availability of preventive vaccinations, the situation of patients with rare diseases, as well as communication in public health.
On the second day of the Congress, a scientific session was held. Scientists, students and doctoral students presented the results of their work and research in the field of public health.
The event took place on December 9-10 at the Didactic Centre of the MUW, it was also broadcast on-line.
Organizers: The Medical University of Warsaw, Faculty of Health Sciences, Narodowy Instytut Zdrowia Publicznego PIB, Instytut Ochrony Zdrowia, Polskie Stowarzyszenie Naukowe Zagrożenia Cywilizacyjne i Zdrowie Publiczne.
Honorary Patronage: prof. Zbigniew Gaciong, Rector of the MUW.
