– On Friday evening (April 12 – editor’s note), my partner began feeling pain in the back, around his tailbone. On Saturday morning, he got up and said that things were bad because something in his back hurt terribly. However, he went to work, and when he came back, he said: “I can’t stand, it hurts so much.” At around 10 p.m., he went to the night and holiday healthcare service and explained what was happening. The doctor shouted at him and said that people do not come in with something like that. In her opinion, the surgeon on the night shift was not there to examine such things. So he returned home and endured the entire night because he could not sleep. On Sunday, he suffered and could not walk at all. He barely slept from Sunday into Monday because the pain was so terrible. On Monday, he went to his family doctor. When the family doctor saw it, he said that it was suitable only for cutting and immediately issued an urgent referral to a surgeon at the surgical clinic. It turned out that patients could not be registered for an urgent appointment at the surgical clinic in Bolesławiec. They wanted to register him for May 7 at the earliest. They said that they had no such thing as an urgent appointment – says Ms Beata.

– We got nothing done on Monday. On Tuesday, I called all the nearby hospitals. They admitted us in Lwówek. A doctor examined him and said that a surgeon had to see it, adding: “It would be best if you went back to your own hospital and had them admit him to the ward” – says Ms Beata.

– My partner went again on Tuesday night, because he could no longer bear the pain, to the emergency department. The same doctor was there again. She chased him away. I have a recording of the conversation in which she says that she, as a doctor, does not deal with such things and that I should find another surgeon – Ms Beata explains. – And she sent him home. He did not sleep all night. When he got up this morning, everything burst. I asked a friend to take him to the hospital because I was at work and could not leave. My friend went in without an appointment and said that the patient was already vomiting from the painkillers, because that was all they told him to take, and that he was in pain and it had burst. So they became frightened, and only then did a doctor take him in and say: “Sir, it is already too late; now we will be treating the complications. Why did you not come sooner?” So my partner replied that he had. The doctor said that it was unbelievable that nobody had wanted to examine him.

According to Ms Beata, this is not the first person to be treated in such an unempathetic way. – My daughter has a friend. That friend’s sister kept going to the night and holiday healthcare service with stomach pain until her appendix ruptured. Because abdominal pain – and I quote – is not a reason to go to the emergency department – adds the outraged woman.

– To be honest, I am terrified by what is happening in Bolesławiec. Lwówek admits us, and they are shocked that such things happen in Bolesławiec. They say: you have your own emergency department. We say that they do not want to admit us, and they simply cannot believe it. I will also say that when I spoke with an employee of St. Łukasz Hospital, he said that there is one particular shift that selects people in precisely this way. I should also add that when I went to the emergency department with my high blood pressure and heart problems, they treated me with compassion. The doctor who was on duty in that emergency department at the time took care of me as he should. But now another shift simply treated my partner like garbage. I have already emailed the patient rights ombudsperson in Bolesławiec and also tried to call there today, but of course nobody answered the phone – says Ms Beata.

– At this point, my partner will first have the effects of this negligence treated. Only later will they admit him to the ward and operate once they have cleaned out the infection and all the bacterial complications – the embittered woman from Bolesławiec adds at the end of her account.

We asked Kamil Barczyk, director of St. Łukasz Hospital, for comment. This was the response received on April 23:

With reference to the report sent by email on April 18, 2024, concerning an incident involving the improper treatment of a patient in the emergency department, I inform you that:

without the patient’s personal details, we are unable to verify the report. Several hundred people with various problems report to the emergency department every day.

Yours faithfully,
Kamil Barczyk

On the same day, April 23, we replied to the director as follows:

The patient’s details are (...). We do not know whether this changes anything, because, as the account sent to you shows, he was not even asked for his name or registered in the system. However, we have a recording of the conversation with the doctor, so the visit is documented. It should also be recorded on the surveillance footage.

We received no further reply to this email.

What have your experiences been with St. Łukasz Hospital in Bolesławiec? You can describe your stories in the comments under the article.