Women’s Healthcare Services since the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak in Poland
Katarzyna Wszołek, Dominik Pruski, Katarzyna Tomczyk, Małgorzata Kampioni, Karolina Chmaj-Wierzchowska, Marcin Przybylski, Maciej Wilczak
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic had a direct impact on the extent of guaranteed healthcare services. Many gynecologists', obstetricians', and midwives' offices were closed, laboratories suspended their activities, the collection of necessary tests was delayed, and women had to wait much longer for test results than they had to previously. General women's healthcare prophylactic programs were suspended or delayed. In 2020, screening financed by public funds covered less than one-seventh of the female population in Poland. As medical teams, professionals, clinicians, and scientists, we have been facing a challenge to help, protect, and care for one of the most vulnerable population groups, pregnant women. A significant part of that challenge has been in preventing the spread of severe COVID-19, along with other preventable diseases, among women who are pregnant, who are in labor, or who have recently given birth.