Formal and Professional Requirements for the Staff of Hyperbaric Centres. Part 1

This two-part article reviews the current legal situation of specialist staff performing hyperbaric procedures for purposes not related to diving. Numerous discrepancies between the applicable legal acts and the lack of legal regulations concerning procedures not financed from the state budget have been noted. The first significant problem consisted in the lack of a correlation between various Regulations of the Minister of Health concerning hyperbaric oxygenation, as well as inconsistencies with the programmes of medical specialisation effective in Poland. The second problem is the lack of determination requirements of medical personnel other than doctors and nurses in the documents of the Ministry of Health. It was also found that medical hyperbaric centres which do not apply for funding from the budget (National Health Fund), do not even meet the minimum requirements defined as to the qualifications of the staff working there. Moreover, there is a lack of knowledge of the requirements set out in legal acts other than those concerning medicine.