An interview with Zdzisław Bogucki, MD, an otorhinolaryngology specialist and head of the Otorhinolaryngology Department at the hospital in Bolesławiec
-Doctor, is it true that the Otorhinolaryngology Department in Bolesławiec is to be closed?
-Unfortunately, such an intention is supposedly in line with the ministerial healthcare reform.
As part of this reform (?!), the number of otorhinolaryngology beds in our voivodeship is to be reduced by 31, including 26 in Bolesławiec (all the beds) and 5 in Jelenia Góra?
-Is the Minister of Health forecasting a decrease in throat, ear and nose illnesses?
-I don’t think so, because the number of procedures and hospitalizations is increasing year by year. The Bolesławiec Otorhinolaryngology Department, whose catchment area also includes Warta Bolesławiecka (Legnica Voivodeship) and Lwówek Śląski—a total of approximately 150,000 potential patients—hospitalized more than 750 patients and performed 563 procedures in the current year alone. And the year is not over yet. For comparison, in previous years the figures were as follows: in 1993, 650 hospitalizations and 418 procedures; a year later, 787 and 501; and in 1995, 811 and 562.
-With 26 beds, patients must surely wait in a queue for a hospital place?
-They wait a week, sometimes two, for procedures. Acute cases are admitted on an ongoing basis.
-Are the plans to close the Department specifically in Bolesławiec motivated by the premises in which it operates, or are there perhaps substantive reasons behind the closure—its expertise and capabilities?
-I do not think the reasons you mentioned will influence the planned decisions. The Department has been operating for more than 30 years. Neither patients nor medical staff complain about the premises. Inspections and reviews also do not identify any inconveniences or substantive shortcomings. The full range of otorhinolaryngological procedures is performed in Bolesławiec, with the obvious exception of laryngeal cancer cases requiring complicated operations. Such operations and procedures are performed by clinics.
Returning to the premises: the current Otorhinolaryngology Department building is intended to house a hospice. I cannot imagine a hospice operating in a building with narrow, winding stairs and no elevators, for example. A hospice requires exceptionally specific conditions; otorhinolaryngology does not.
-And what is the Department’s inventory of medical equipment and devices like?
-The Department has basic equipment and devices, although—as everywhere—newer equipment would also be useful.
Several years ago, thanks to the Social Committee for the Purchase of Medical Equipment, which had been formed spontaneously at the Society of Friends of Bolesławiec, the Department acquired a very useful device for laryngeal microsurgery. The purchase of an otorhinolaryngological drill and a set of instruments for ear microsurgery remains a dream.
The procedures currently performed—surgery for chronic middle-ear inflammation—involve removing pathological changes without the possibility of improving hearing. New equipment would make it possible to remove diseases in the ear and perform procedures that—at least partially, if not completely—could restore hearing.
The cost of such equipment is more than 150 million old zlotys. If sponsors, including the Lwówek and Warta Bolesławiecka municipalities that use the Bolesławiec Otorhinolaryngology Department, were to support the Social Committee for the Purchase of Medical Equipment more generously, purchasing such equipment would become realistic, while the hospital’s standing would also improve.
-Head Doctor, what will happen to such a large number of patients if the Department is closed?
-Patients will have to travel to Jelenia Góra, Lubań and even farther. The waiting list will grow longer, and the money “following the patient” will also move from Bolesławiec to other towns.
Interview conducted by Franciszek Uściński