Tomasz Karkowski

Adjusting medical staff resources to the needs of an ageing population

The aim of the article is to show the changes in medical staff resources, which are made by creating new specializations or new professions better tailored to the needs of an ageing population. The analysis is based on the data from GUS  (the Central Statistical Office), the Ministry of Health and legal acts.

The demographic changes are a serious challenge to the social and economic policies of the EU and its member countries. On the one hand, we can observe that the process of ageing of population accelerates, but on the other hand, the average life expectancy is longer. Moreover, one’s health condition changes every year, and after having reached a certain age, elderly people should take care of their health and control it using medical assistance. Losing the capacity to do everyday activities along with memory and cognitive impairment increase the demand for healthcare services, nursing and care services, long-term care and terminal care. That is why it is necessary to create a care system coordinated with those needs and providing appropriate medical staff resources, which will provide professional care for the elderly. The staff will include not only the representatives of “medical professions”, such as doctors and nurses, but also other health care professionals (e.g pharmacists, hygiene experts, health promoters, physiotherapists, dieticians and nutrition specialists) and a so-called auxiliary medical personnel – nurse’s assistant, medical guardian. Moreover, we can also observe  actions aiming at the improvement of the care for elderly people in Poland, which is done by increasing medical staffs’ competencies in geriatric care. Team-based approach to geriatric care, understood as a process of comprehensive evaluation of health problems, physical fitness, mental condition, the level of social support (including family support), financial situation and the conditions of living of a geriatric patient, is carried out by an interdisciplinary geriatric team and aims at improving the level and quality of healthcare services, and patient’s functional status and quality of life.