News
New analysis: what specialist training for doctors in Poland looks like.
From recruitment to the examination: the programme, on-call duty, supervision and money. Training lasts from four to six years, and the act does not say how much time a specialisation supervisor must have for the doctors they oversee.
There is a new analysis on the site: Specialist training for doctors in Poland: from the internship to the title of specialist. It continues the text on medical studies. It describes recruitment, the training programme, on-call duty, the supervisor’s oversight, the residency and non-residency modes, work outside the residency and the examination at the end.
What it shows
- The programme lists how many procedures a doctor must perform independently. In general surgery it is at least 500 operations over six years.
- The act does not say how much time a specialisation supervisor must have for the doctors they oversee. A supervisor may oversee three doctors at a time, four by exception, and receives an allowance for it, but does not have to work at the facility for any minimum number of hours. A draft amendment from the Ministry of Health introduces a half-time minimum; for now it is only a draft.
- At the first attempt, close to 90% of candidates pass the test of the specialty examination; at a later attempt, less than half: from 87.3 to 90.4% compared with 36.8–44.8% (from 2023 to spring 2026).
- The state budget spent PLN 3.97 billion on residencies in 2025, which is 68.7% of the plan. The ministry moved the unspent money to the National Health Fund (NFZ). In September 2025, 31,509 doctors and dentists were in training.
- Poland has 77 medical specialties, 69 of which can be started without another specialty. Germany has 51 such specialties, Sweden 44 and Czechia 43. Including subspecialties, however, Czechia has more: 89.
What else is in the text
A comparison of the programmes in general surgery, internal medicine, cardiology and family medicine, the rules on work outside the residency, the supplement for committing to work in Poland and the penalty for not keeping that commitment, and when training can be interrupted and how to return to a residency. Every number is sourced in the notes.