Hello, is a patient with e.g. tuberculosis compulsorily hospitalized, or is it possible to refuse to go to hospital?

Pursuant to the norms of criminal law and the Act on Combating Infectious Diseases, a person who fails to undergo treatment is subject to criminal sanction and compulsory treatment. Pursuant to Art. 36.1 of the Act on the prevention and combating of infections and infectious diseases in humans, to a person who does not submit to vaccination, sanitary and epidemiological tests, sanitary procedures, quarantine or isolation, and in whom a particularly dangerous and highly infectious disease is suspected or diagnosed, constituting a direct threat to he alth or life of other people, a measure of direct coercion may be used, consisting in holding, immobilizing or forcibly administering drugs. A doctor who suspects or recognizes an infectious disease (e.g. tuberculosis) is obliged to instruct the patient or the person who actually care for the patient about precautionary measures to prevent transmission of the infection to other people. The fact of contracting tuberculosis shall be reported by the doctor to the voivodship sanitary inspector, competent for the place of the disease, or to a specialist unit designated by him, competent in the field of tuberculosis and lung diseases. A sanitary inspector, by way of an administrative decision, may order a sick or suspected person to undergo medical examinations, compulsory treatment, compulsory hospitalization, isolation or epidemiological supervision. Pursuant to the Act, a person suffering from tuberculosis, who does not suffer from mycobacteria, is subject to obligatory outpatient treatment. This obligation consists of undergoing medical examinations, other diagnostic tests and compliance with the prescribed treatment. In the case of diagnosing an infection that may be transmitted through sexual contact, the doctor is obliged to inform the infected person about the necessity to visit the doctor of the infected partner or sexual partners. The head of the unit in which compulsory hospitalization is performed is also obliged to notify the family or a person indicated by the person subject to compulsory hospitalization about the application of this measure.

Legal basis: ACT of 5 December 2008 on preventing and combating infections and infectious diseases in humans (Journal of Laws of 2008, No. 234, item 1570, as amended)

Remember that our expert's answer is informative and will not replace a visit to the doctor.

Przemysław Gogojewicz

Independent legal expert specializing in medical matters.

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