Emergency departments need to be improved. We checked what Poles think about hospital emergency departments.

In a survey conducted by SW Research, we asked: "How do you assess the functioning of hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Poland?" Only one in five respondents expressed a positive opinion of EDs.

• Definitely good 3.2 percent
• Rather good 18.7 percent
• Neither good nor bad 24.9 percent
• Rather bad 27.7 percent
• Definitely bad 16.8 percent
• Hard to say 8.7 percent

Men have a slightly better opinion of emergency departments. 40.8% of them have a negative opinion of the functioning of hospital emergency departments.

As many as 47.7% of women have negative opinions about emergency departments.

Interestingly, younger respondents have the lowest opinion of emergency departments . When asked "How do you rate the functioning of hospital emergency departments (EDs) in Poland?" in the "over 50" age group, 39.9% of respondents responded "rather poorly" or "definitely poorly." The situation is significantly worse in the 25-34 and 35-49 age groups. In both cases, more than half of respondents rated emergency departments "rather poorly" or "definitely poorly" (54.5% and 50.1%, respectively).

What's wrong in emergency rooms?

Thanks to the SW Research survey for "Wprost", we were also able to check what, according to Poles, is "the biggest problem of hospital emergency departments (ER)?"

The largest number of respondents (34.8%) cited "waiting time for a medical consultation" as the biggest problem facing Polish emergency departments. Second place went to "waiting time for triage – the initial assessment of the patient's health." One in five respondents (21.9%) expressed reservations about this aspect of emergency department care.

The next places were occupied by:

• Shortage of medical personnel 15.1 percent
• Lack of empathy among medical staff 10.7 percent
• Difficult communication with medical staff (or lack thereof) 6.3 percent
• 7.4% of respondents had no opinion on the "ills" of emergency departments.
• The housing conditions (lack of privacy, patient beds in the corridor, lack of bedding, etc.) were mentioned by 3% of respondents.

If we look at the gender division of the study participants, the greatest disproportions concern the answer: "Difficult communication or lack thereof with medical personnel."

8% of men, compared to 4.8% of women, indicated this problem.

Among residents of cities with a population of over 500,000, almost one in five indicated the "shortage of medical personnel" as a problem of emergency departments.

For residents of cities with 100,000 to 199,000 inhabitants, the biggest problem is the "waiting time for a medical consultation" (41.6%) and the "waiting time for triage" (21.8%).

The study was conducted on July 29-30, 2025, by SW Research using online interviews on the SW Panel website. As part of the study, 805 interviews were conducted with a representative sample of Poles over 18 years of age in terms of gender, age, and town size.

Discussion about emergency departments is essential

The topic of the functioning of Polish emergency departments was raised during the last meeting of the Consultative Council on the organization and observance of patient rights in medical entities of the health care system, operating at the Ministry of Health.

Its initiators: Anita Demianowicz , Anna Hernik, and Aleksandra Kąkol emphasize that although it was stated during the discussion that "Hospital Emergency Departments are facilities focused primarily on saving lives, and soft skills are not their key element", effective communication - especially in conditions of stress, pain and patient confusion - cannot be treated as "soft", but rather as a basic and systemic need.