In as many as seven hospitals covered by the audit the sanitary and technical condition of children’s departments was non-compliant with the law. The same was with the rooms where meals were prepared and given out to little patients. They were not properly equipped and lacked necessary cleaning agents. In one hospital medicine was not properly protected against unauthorised access. None of the audited hospitals properly developed the so-called Adjustment Programmes. The Programmes did not provide for adequate furnishing of isolation wards or the need to install glass walls (to enable monitoring of children).
Not in all children’s hospital departments were the conditions satisfactory. For instance, in one hospital, two patient beds were placed in hospital rooms of only 7 m2. In another one, 8 beds were put in a room of 50 m2. Some hospitals did not provide decent conditions to ill children’s parents or caregivers: they were offered to sleep in one bed with their child or in a different ward. Some hospitals demanded fees from parents who stayed overnight with their child. It is not illegal, although the European Charter on Children's Rights in Hospital recommended by the Ministry of Health provides that the parents’ stay in hospital should not entail extra costs.
NIK also points to irregularities in using medical equipment for examinations and procedures. In the audited hospitals they were conducted without having the equipment checked up. Such conduct does not guarantee required safety to patients and medical staff. It may also cause wrong interpretation of health parameters. It should be emphasised that inoperativeness of some medical devices (e.g. infusion pumps) may pose a threat to patients’ health.
The audit showed that not all hospitals provided full medical staff. Two hospitals had problems with finding paediatricians. For that reason the National Health Fund lowered the contract value in agreements with those hospitals in subsequent years.
Following the audit, NIK recommended that municipality heads should increase financial aid for hospitals so as to improve the patients’ treatment conditions. NIK also pointed to the need for strengthening supervision over those hospitals by NFZ. Since there were problems with hiring paediatricians, NIK pointed out that the Governor of Warmia and Mazury Province should increase the number of post-graduate schools for physicians who specialise in treating children.
