In 2020 and 2021, our entire modern world has experienced a threat which for several generations no longer seemed real. A ubiquitous threat to life, being locked up at home and lack of access to many consumer conveniences and achievements of civilisation have demonstrated how fragile our existence can be. A pandemic wave flooded the world and shattered the existing image of our civilisation.

In Poland, as elsewhere in the world, health care turned out to be the most burdened element, as it yielded to the wave, but did not collapse. In our opinion, this is the sole merit of dedicated employees: doctors, nurses, paramedics and support staff who, despite the threat to health, technical complications, decision chaos and media attacks, continued to do their job the best.

Like a tsunami, the pandemic mercilessly exposed all the yearslong shortcomings in the planning, organisation and financing of services. In the aftermath of this deluge, a new landscape will emerge in which the robust elements of the health care system continue to endure. There will also be room to rebuild those elements that did not survive the test. And this is what we want to discuss at the 16th edition of our Symposium.