Providing Health Services without Entitlement – Who Can(Not) Diagnose and Treat Patients in Poland

This article discusses the issue of providing health services without entitlement. Prohibited acts related to this are typified in the Law on the Profession of a Medical Doctor and Dentist. Th e seemingly clear typification of a misdemeanour and an offence, contained respectively in Article 58(1) and (2) of this law, proves in judicial practice to be quite problematic. Accordingly, the article attempts to examine the acts in question in terms of their sufficient clarity and the possibility of correctly interpreting the elements that constitute them. The results of this attempt indicate that in the Polish legal system, the possibility of determining precisely which health services are reserved exclusively for performance by doctors is particularly complicated. In addition, most allied health professions and related activities are not legally regulated. Such a situation requires legislative action so that Article 58(1) and (2) of the abovementioned law can be applied in practice and meet the requirements of the principle of nullum crimen sine lege certa.