The aim of the article is to present selected issues related to the impact of the pandemic on the universality of e-health services, as well as to show the readiness to use such services by the inhabitants of urban and rural areas in Poland. Several hypotheses are launched regarding the COVID-19 effect in relation to the implementation, use and access to e-health services and the skills needed to use them.

The article includes an analysis of the legal and social context accompanying organisational changes in the health care system caused by the presence of the COVID-19 virus, as well as an analysis of the results of quantitative research on the attitude of rural residents to such solutions. Data obtained in a study from the WE Patients Foundation provide some insight into the complexity of factors governing e-health use, showing less differences between city and rural areas than we hypothesised.

Corruption is commonly defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It is estimated that over 500 USD billion are lost every year due to corruption and that a 1-point change in the control of corruption indicator measured by the World Bank increases life expectancy by 0.44 years and reduces under-five mortality by 4.6 per 1,000 infants. Despite its global prevalence and critical impact on public and private services, corruption in the healthcare sector remains understudied. The present report aims to expand the knowledge on the paramount need to tackle corruption in healthcare by identifying the actors in the health system at risk to involving in corrupt practices, followed by defining health corruption from the governmental, non-governmental organisations, and societal perspectives, together with describing relevant corruption indicators from countries from the WHO European region. To conclude, this report presents a set of proposals and recommendations to address corruption in the healthcare sector.

This article presents the characteristics of health programs implemented from public funds in Poland which are based on generally applicable laws. The key element of the considerations is the presentation of the tasks of the public payer (National Health Fund) in the implementation of health programs. This issue is presented in the perspective of the conditions of the health care system in Poland.

Cezary Włodarczyk, Janusz Opolski, Andrzej Koronkiewicz, Jacek Putz, Janusz Meder, Paweł Roszkowski, Paweł Goryński, Rafał Halik, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, Magdalena Krysińska-Pisarek, Olga Partyka, Stanisława Golinowska, Andrzej Fal