The problem of medical dispatchers' responsibility functioning in the emergency medical services system.

Abstract

Deaths due to inappropriate functioning of the emergency medical services system, as recently described by Polish mass media, has drawn the attention of society to the activities of medical dispatchers. Legal regulations impose obligations on those persons associated with receiving phone calls and dispensing appropriate emergency medical teams. In this paper an analysis of chosen medicolegal opinions from the practice of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Forensic Toxicology, Medical University of Silesia in Katowice, towards malpractices committed by dispatchers of EMS, was performed. The authors analysed 12 of medicolegal opinions, issued from 2007 to 2012 by a team of experts. The errors noted in the work of dispatchers consisted of delays in giving appropriate assistance due to the inability to properly converse, a propensity to downplay patients' symptoms, and dispatchers crossing their own competences. The problem may be resolved by the subsidy of EMS, fine-tuning the algorithms for conduct, and proper education of both staff and public.