Pomorskie

19th March 2010

“At least I know here how everything operates, there I’ll have to work it all out again. It’ll be further away and more complicated” Share:

A National Health Fund (NFZ) computer has reallocated National Health status to Pomorskie dental surgeries, cutting 20% of surgeries off the list and leaving some areas of Gdansk with no free dental health care. The computer was set up to make decisions according to set criteria, regardless of geographical location, and its results have left patients in the poorest areas with no state dentists, forcing patients to sign on in new surgeries several kilometres away from their homes.

Patients in the affected areas are upset, “At least I know here how everything operates, there I’ll have to work it all out again. It’ll be further away and more complicated,” said one.

The NFZ are unrepentant, though. “At least no one can accuse us of favouritism. The computer decided and that’s that,” NFZ spokesperson Mariusz Szymanski told reporters from Gazeta Trojmiasto.

And similar chaos could soon spread to other regions. “All the Fund’s divisions in Poland have reacted positively to what happened here in Pomorskie. They’ll be doing the same, only they’ll have the selection process at a later date,” Barbara Kaminska, a deputy medical director for the NFZ in Pomorze commented.

Gdansk is greener

Gdansk Shipyards have been named joint-winners of a prestigious contest for producing environmentally-friendly ships, “Green ship of the year”. The award was announced at the Green Ship Technology Conference held this week in Copenhagen.

The Polish shipbuilber received the prize for its Moldefjord ferry, built for a Norwegian operator. The ship utilizes a hybrid technology, with one standard diesel engine supported by two liquefied natural gas (LNG) units.

Use of the technology reduces the emissions of nitrous oxides (NOx) by as much as 90%. In fact, when the entire fleet of ferries ordered by the Norwegians enter service, they will save as much NOx as is currently produced by all the cars in Oslo.

Online coppers

Gdansk police are moving with the times and have opened their own pages on YouTube and Facebook. The aim of the sites will be to try and show that the majority of police work is about crime prevention and social work.

“Thanks to the images, certain types of behaviour are better remembered. So, if we want to talk about making your home secure, an officer can show you what to do. If we want to praise the behaviour of drivers, or condemn other manoeuvres, it will be much easier to show it using video,” police explained. The sites will aslo show more spectacular material from arrests to video of night patrols.