Dr. Andrei Vitushka returned to his profession after KGB interrogations and emigration

Andrei Vitushka is a doctor of the highest category, Candidate of Medical Sciences, who worked for more than 20 years at the National Research Center "Mother and Child". But after he was detained at Akrestsina on August 10, 2020, his contract was not extended, despite the support of colleagues and grateful patients.

In May 2023, Andrei and his wife Kristina were detained by the KGB. Due to the threat of a criminal case, the family decided to leave Belarus for Poland. What happened next?

"That was the first warning bell..."

— Since I couldn't work in medicine immediately, because it requires fulfilling a number of conditions, namely passing two exams, I worked at an IT company as a consultant for projects in the field of digital health. And in parallel, I was preparing to take the exams.

The first was an exam in medical Polish, which I passed within six months of being in Poland. It was quite difficult, because medical Polish is different in that many medical terms, which are Latinized all over the world, have their own names in Poland. Despite knowing Polish before coming to Poland, I had to prepare a lot.

Next, I had to prepare for the so-called nostrification exam, which confirms that your medical diploma is equivalent to a Polish medical diploma. This is also a kind of challenge in terms of knowledge, because you have to demonstrate knowledge in all fields of medicine. A similar exam, even slightly easier, is taken by medical students graduating from medical university with their fresh knowledge in various fields of medicine.

It was a certain challenge, but I managed it. Besides, it takes a lot of time. After all, you still have to work and somehow support your family. You also have to pay five thousand zlotys [1150 euros] for this exam (if you don't pass the first time, you have to pay the same five thousand for each subsequent attempt).

By the way, that's when I first encountered the peculiarities of Polish medical bureaucracy. When I submitted documents for the nostrification exam, I was asked for an apostille on my diploma. I already had international protection then, I had refugee status. I was then able to prove to the university administration that I had objective reasons not to provide this apostille.

But that was the first warning bell that in the Polish healthcare system you might face certain, let's say, documentation challenges and difficulties, and it wouldn't be easy.

Not only from the point of view that it's a foreign language, that you need to acquire a large amount of knowledge, that it's a different culture, albeit a close one. It won't be easy in a bureaucratic sense.

"In Belarus, I always felt a kind of glass ceiling above me"

This was another challenge and stress for Andrei, which he had to cope with.

— Life in principle is full of stresses, and emigrant life is full of stresses, and life in Belarus was also not without stresses, because I worked in a specialty where there are plenty of stresses.

And plus, because I am a consistent Belarusian speaker, I have a certain position and tried to improve the provision of care to children in my place, as much as I could. This caused certain apprehension among the management.

I always felt a kind of glass ceiling above me. Being a candidate of sciences, a doctor of the highest category, having a number of foreign internships, which I obtained myself without any state support.

Only once, at the very end of my career, was I offered one foreign internship. All my other trips to the United States, Ireland, Austria were at my own expense, through personal contacts and in my free time. I specifically took unpaid leave to go for an internship, to improve my qualifications.

Therefore, there was always a glass ceiling over my head. But, despite this, I tried to act and work in a way that would benefit my patients.

"I'd like to return to my beloved patients and anesthesia machines sooner"

After his diploma was confirmed, Andrei had to complete another year of internship. All Polish former students do this to decide on a specialization. To understand in practice which area they would like to work in.

— There is an opportunity to shorten this internship on the basis that you have certain clinical experience and the question of which specialization to choose does not stand before you. And I would like to return to my beloved patients and anesthesia machines sooner.

So I turned to the Centre for Postgraduate Medical Education (Centrum Medycznego Kształcenia Podyplomowego, CMKP), which is a structure of the Ministry of Health in Poland. This Centre deals with such cases concerning doctors who have come from abroad. I submitted the documents, but they refused to consider my case for a formal reason — on the basis that I do not have an apostille on my Belarusian diploma. And this is despite the fact that my Belarusian diploma has already been nostrified, i.e., recognized as equivalent to a Polish one.

I submitted additional explanations, provided a copy of the decision on my international protection. I explained that I objectively cannot return to Belarus and obtain an apostille. But these arguments were not accepted. So, for a year, alongside yesterday's students, I surprised Polish doctors and nurses with the fact that such a gray-haired intern came to them.

"SOR — one of the most difficult departments in any hospital"

— After this internship, I submitted documents again to the CMKP, but this time for specialization recognition. And in parallel, since it's a long process, I started working where Polish medicine allows a doctor without specialization to work. Because for Polish medicine, I am a doctor without specialization. A student who hasn't chosen anything yet, only thinking about their future profession after the internship.

Such opportunities are not especially many. And the closest to what I did before, to intensive care, is work at SOR (Szpitalny oddział ratunkowy). This is something like an emergency department.

Your task is to provide emergency care and decide whether this person should stay in the hospital, in which department, or be discharged home because their condition does not require hospitalization.

I think SOR is probably one of the most difficult departments in any hospital.

Besides SOR, there is also the possibility of working in polyclinics after 6 PM on a working day until 8 AM the next day. And on weekends, when patients come to you and you provide them with assistance, or refer them to the same SOR in the hospital. These are practically all the opportunities for doctors without specialization.

"My documents were not even considered"

— Two months after submitting documents for specialization confirmation, I received a refusal. For the reason that I cannot submit documents about the exam at the end of my specialization, which I took back in 2002. I cannot submit the protocol of this exam. And why can't I submit it? Because I cannot go to Belarus and personally resolve this issue.

And I tried to contact the Belarusian State Medical University remotely, I contacted the National Research Center "Mother and Child" to get information about what I did during almost 20 years of my work there. But they refused me.

I sent these written refusals, translated into Polish and notarized, to the CMKP. And I received another refusal from them, because I cannot "submit all necessary documents".

I wrote to them again, arguing, as the first time, providing a copy of the decision on granting me international protection and arguing that I cannot go to Belarus, I cannot bring these documents. I have objective reasons, the objectivity of which is recognized by the Polish state, which is confirmed by the status granted to me. But my documents were not even considered.

And so it turns out that I was allowed to return to medicine, but they don't even give me a chance to consider documents about my specialization. This, by analogy, is like if you were the second violin in an orchestra, and they allow you to return to the orchestra as the conductor's assistant, to turn pages. Of course, very important work, on which the functioning of the entire orchestra depends, but not what I did before and where my strengths lie.

This is not only Dr. Andrei Vitushka's problem, but also that of all those Belarusian doctors who, for political reasons, cannot obtain all the necessary papers from Belarus. It turns out that many highly qualified specialists (surgeons, orthopedists, traumatologists, endocrinologists, and others) are forced to work not at all where they could be most useful. And this is despite the fact that Poland experiences a great shortage of precisely narrow specialists.

Nevertheless, Andrei Vitushka believes that the Polish system has quite a few advantages. These include high salaries, which allow doctors to work only one full-time position. And greater preparedness for modern challenges — chronic diseases. Polish medicine is high-tech, and this applies not only to Warsaw but to any settlement in the country. The Polish system for supplying patients with medicines is also impressive.

• 24
• 3
• 0
• 1
• 0
• 13
• 1
• 1