The Implementation of the Soviet Healthcare Model in ‘People’s Democracy’ Countries—the Case of Post-war Poland (1944–1953)

Abstract

Abstract This article aims at presenting a Soviet model of public health service, the so-called Siemaszko model, and its implementation in the People’s Republic of Poland (1944/45–1953). Based on the Marx’s and Lenin’s interpretations, the Soviet model assumed a universal nature of health service, financing healthcare from the public purse, full state (party) control over public health, full access to medical services for all, entire staff put on the public payroll and state education for medical personnel. After the Second World War a modified version of that model was implemented in the so-called people’s democracies (i.e. communist countries). In the post-war years, a two-stage implementation of this socialist model was rolled out in the People’s Republic of Poland. The first stage, in 1944–48, was based on the so-called multisector approach. The second began in 1948 and assumed a full and planned unification and nationalisation of the healthcare system.