Działalność Rzecznika Praw Lekarza w okręgowej izbie lekarskiej w świetle przepisów prawa

The professional self-government of doctors, striving to defend the individual and collective interests of doctors, appointed the Ombudsman for Doctors’ Rights, following the example of the Patient Ombudsman. Persons acting as doctors’ advocates are appointed within the structure of each medical chamber. Due to the lack of statutory regulations, until recently, this function was limited to organizing legal advice or applying to the chamber’s organs for taking specific positions on the issues of violating the rights of doctors. The aim of this article is to analyze and assess the real competences of the Ombudsman for Doctors’ Rights as an entity appointed by a resolution of a medical chamber, and not by a normative act, and to indicate whether such an entity is actually necessary in the structures of medical chambers and whether it should be introduced to such structures, and, consequently, whether it requires statutory regulation. The research method applied is based on the analysis of the current legal status regarding the professional self-government and of its possibility to perform tasks given to it by the legislator. The method also intends to formulate possible de lege ferenda postulates.