Poland is a country located in the central - eastern part of Europe. The country has population around 40 million inhabitants. The health care is provided by national health insurance. The health insurance tax is a part of fiscal system in Poland so all people who pay income tax or are retired are entitled to use a public health care system. This system is structured into several levels of reference. The basic level is a health care provided on outpatient basis by family practitioners who collaborate with specialists. Family practitioner who needs specialist consultations can refer patient to regional outpatient specialist care. Hospital care is provided by small local hospitals, regional hospitals and academic hospitals. The later are located in 11 towns hosting the Medical Universities. The top levels of hospital inpatient care are therapeutic area oriented institutions like Oncology Institute, Rheumatology Institute, Child's Health Center Cardiology Insftitute, Transplantation Institute etc.
Most of health care institutions in Poland have modern equipment and can follow diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines publish in recent medical literature. The health insurance covers majority of the costs of services provided by public health care institutions, however due to shortage of founding the access to several procedures and therapies is limited. Thus many patients are put on the long waiting lists before the therapy is started. The costs of the medication prescribed for outpatient usage must be covered by patients and they are only partially reimbursed by health insurance. Thus some modern medical therapies are too expensive for patients. These limitations of the system open the interest for medical institutions, physicians and patients to look for other sources of financial support.
The private health service sector is growing in Poland however there are not many patients who could afford to cover the costs of more complex or complicated therapy. For this reason private sector operates in limited number of therapeutic areas (dentistry, laryngology, alergology). The private health insurance that could expand private health care system is not yet allowed by Polish law. In this situation Poland is a good place to locate clinical trials and around 500 of new ICH-GCP projects are started in Poland every year. Polish resources for ICH-GCP trials include:
- well equipped medical institutions, interested in performing ICH-GCP trials;
- well trained and motivated medical staff with experience in modern medicine and ICH-GP trials;
- patients motivated in participation in ICH-GCP trials;
- implemented UE law regulations for ICH-GCP trials, with Regulatory Authorities and local Ethics Committees
- good communication structure (access to mobile phones, faxes, internet, courier service, railway, plane and road connections);
- institutions that can prepare, monitor and analyze ICH-GCP projects conducted in Poland only or conducted in Poland and other countries as well.
- high quality of the data collected with lower costs than the costs in western European countries
The information provided on this web page describes the experience and facilities of MED-NET – the company established to cover all aspects of ICH-GCP trials in Poland..
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