How do the inhabitants of small towns assess Polish health care?

Background. Results of research conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) inform about "global crisis of medical staff resources". Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge concerning the number of doctors working in Poland, expectations concerning the number of doctors, as well as getting the opinion of respondents concerning postgraduate medical experience, the need for further training and doctors' rights for early retirement. Material and methods. The research material was a population of 105 randomly selected men and women. The average age of the group was 40.1 years (+/- 16.4). Results. According to 79% of respondents access to the public health care in Poland is hampered. 48.6% of respondents believe that there are too few doctors in Poland. According to respondents the average number of physicians per ten thousand citizens is 759 and the average number of doctors working in their profession in Poland is 985. 94.3% of respondents think that doctors should be required to participate in continuous training, while only 61.9% believe that doctors should be able to deduct training costs from tax. More than half of respondents (51.4%) did not support the abolition of the idea of postgraduate medical internship. The right of doctors and nurses to early retirement because of the nature of the work supports 38.1% of them and 40.9% of respondents. Conclusion. Patients have no proper information about the number of doctor practicing in Poland. The vast majority of respondents think that access to public health services is hampered. Half of those surveyed support the idea of abolition of post-graduate medical internship, and almost all respondents are in favor of the obligation of continuous training of doctors, from which one in five is against the deduction of training costs from tax.