“HUMAN” EXPECTATIONS AND NEEDS, THAT IS AN EMPOWERED PATIENT AS A “SURVIVAL STRATEGY” OF CONTEMPORARY PATIENTS

The aim of the article is to present unmet expectations and needs of patients concerning the scope and quality of medical care. The complaints submitted with the Patients Ombudsman at the Ministry of Health have been deemed as exemplary, since this is a central authority of governmental administration relevant in cases regarding the protection of patients specified in the act, which encompasses the entire country in the scope of its powers. This is also the authority which has most often appeared in the mass media, hence it is the most probable thatthe patients will address exactly this institution with any problem they may have (very often without knowing any other way or procedure). The aim of the article is also to present selected strategies assumed by thepatients to allow them to solve the encountered difficulties. Recipients of benefits more and more effectively manage and undertake effective actions aimed at obtaining assistance to the extent they expect. They adopt attitudes proving the assumption of responsibility for their own health (empowered), which is proved even by their Internet activity to the extent of which they search for information on e.g. disease prevention, treatment, application of medicines or good nutrition (however, the conclusions in this regard one cannot generalize interms of the whole population of people enjoying medical benefits). In addition, the article presents also a process of changes with respect to the attitudes towards the value of health and changes occurring in the profile of the modern patient. Presentation of the selected problem area was made on the basis of the results of qualitative analysis of the scope and nature of the complaints submitted with the Patients’ Ombudsman (2009–2013) as well as a selective review and survey of the literature and its analysis.