[Health protection and health promotion in formal structures of executive county authorities and executive offices of municipalities having the county status].
BACKGROUND
An analysis of the role of public administration in the Polish health system, essential for the effectiveness of health protection and health promotion, is a very important and urgent task faced by scholars. This issue also concerns the authorities of counties (powiaty) and municipalities having the county status (MHCS), and these structures were chosen as the subject of our study. The aim of the study was to analyze whether health related rules and regulations of these administrative structures comply with the requirements of relevant Polish legislation acts.


METHODS
The survey, performed in 2008, covered all the 378 counties and municipalities having the county status. On the basis of 171 Acts reviewed, a list of 11 groups of obligations and duties assigned to county and municipality units were prepared and used as a research tool.


CONCLUSIONS
It was found that the provisions of the Health Care Institutions Act of 1991 were most evidently (87%) reflected in the rules and regulations of the studies structures; more than a half (57%) refer to prophylaxis and health promotion, however, the most important Act as far as health protection and health promotion are concerned, i.e., the Act of 2004 was reflected in only 11.6%. Also the presence of some outdated regulations was discovered. The results of the study may indicate that the mechanisms, by which the execution of legal regulations on health protection and health promotion tasks should be supervised, are insufficient.
Nosko
Jan
J
Instytut Medycyny Pracy im. prof. J. Nofera, Lódź, Szkoła Zdrowia Publicznego. nosko@imp.lodz.pl
Marcinkiewicz
Andrzej
A
D000328:Adult; D003153:Community Health Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006266:Health Education / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006270:Health Facility Administrators / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006291:Health Policy / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D009111:Local Government; D008297:Male; D011044:Poland / Q000453:epidemiology; D012040:Regional Health Planning / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*