Doctors Free To Criticise

According to the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, doctors should have the right to criticise one another. The Tribunal announced its decision after investigating Zofia Szychowska’s complaint which was filed in by the Polish Helsinki Foundation of Human Rights. In May 2001 Zofia Szychowska criticised her colleagues in an interview published in Angora for conducting research on sick children. In 2006 the Regional Medical Chamber in Warsaw stated that her critical statements about her colleagues were against medical ethics. Ms. Szychowska was punished for not being careful when formulating her opinions about her colleagues. Zbigniew Hołda, from the Helsinki Foundation, said that medical courts do not properly investigate allegations be they legitimate or not. He also added that doctors should be able to express their opinions for it will prove beneficial to both the doctors and society. The tribunal also announced that the regulation forbidding doctors to criticise other doctors violates freedom of speech.