The draft regulation of the Minister of Health on the pilot programme for the care of healthcare providers within the cardiology network has been submitted for public consultation. The pilot of the National Cardiac Network will, as announced, be extended to include a further five provinces. The pace of work on the draft is truly expressive - taking three days.
- The shortened duration of the public consultation period is dictated by the welfare of the beneficiaries. Earlier implementation of the pilot programme in subsequent provinces will have an impact on the evaluation of the organisation, quality and effects of cardiac care within the cardiology network. Thanks to such an action, it will be possible to obtain more data, which, after analysis by experts in the field of cardiology, will allow the development of target solutions in the area in question,' justifies the rush of Deputy Minister of Health Waldemar Kraska. Importantly, the Ministry of Health was not in such a hurry to prepare the project - the decision to extend the pilot was already announced in spring 2022.
The project extends the implementation of the pilot programme - so far implemented in Mazovia - to the provinces of Łódź, Małopolska, Pomerania, Silesia and Wielkopolska.
- Independent Public Health Care Institution Central Clinical Hospital of the Medical University of Lodz;
- Krakow John Paul II Specialist Hospital;
- University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk;
- Silesian Centre for Heart Diseases in Zabrze;
- Heliodor Święcicki Clinical Hospital of the Karol Marcinkowski University of Medical Sciences in Poznań.
Previously, in the Mazovian Voivodeship, the Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński National Research Institute in Warsaw was designated as the coordinating centre.
Why were these voivodeships selected? - The selected voivodeships are the voivodeships with the largest population, right after the Mazowieckie voivodeship, which was the first to be included in the pilot programme, explains the Ministry of Health.
For the newly incorporated provinces, the draft regulation sets deadlines for the three individual phases of the programme:
- organisational phase - 12 August 2022 to 31 December 2022;
- implementation phase - until 31 December 2024 (thanks to the extension of the pilot, it will be possible to verify the cardiology network in the areas of the newly incorporated provinces);
- the evaluation phase - a summary and assessment of the implementation of the pilot programme, will take place within three months of the end of the implementation phase.
The National Cardiac Network envisages cooperation between family doctors and specialist outpatient clinics and hospitals, which will make it possible to catch patients queuing to see specialists with cardiovascular problems at an earlier stage (a maximum of one month is assumed for the first visit to a cardiologist, who will decide either to refer the patient for diagnostic tests, including in specialist centres, or to refer the patient to the care of a PCP). The Ministry of Health and experts have great hopes for the National Cardiac Network, above all they hope that it will make it easier to catch up at least part of the health backlog accumulated during the pandemic - especially as cardiovascular diseases remain the biggest killer of Poles.
Source: medexpress.co.uk