Disputes as to the Legal Status of Independent Public Health Care Facilities
Life and health are values which are of fundamental importance both for individuals and for the proper functioning of society. Therefore, topics concerning health care in Poland have always aroused great controversy and numerous disputes. The functioning of the health care system is an important topic of public debate, scientific controversy, as well as private dispute amongst Poles. This article does not, however, focus on the sociological aspects of the operation of the health care system, but rather on the legal status of the primary legal-organizational unit of the system, namely independent public health care facilities. The analysis has been subjected to the genesis of the solutions functioning to date as well as the problems which have arisen in this respect. The legal conditions surrounding the activity of independent public health care facilities IPHF presented in this article, in particular the disputes as to whether or not these entities have alegal personality and entrepreneurial status, demonstrate alack of consistency on the part of the legislature, imprecision and inconsistency of regulations and anotable absence of aconception as to how the health care system should ultimately be shaped from the institutional point of view. Without denying the benefits of the introduction of modern methods of management in medical entities, it should be stressed that simply achange in the legal-organizational form is not comprehensive reform, but only afragment thereof.