Paper Sick Notes Vanish in Poland as Occupational Health Certificates Go Fully Electronic
Published on 10/19/2026 at 11:30 | Editorial boerse-global.de
Polish doctors can no longer hand workers a paper certificate after a medical examination. Since 18 October 2026, occupational health documents must be issued and transmitted electronically, according to the state Centre for e-Health (Centrum e-Zdrowia), which says medics are now obliged to produce the paperwork in digital form.
The change is the latest stage in the digitisation of the country's health system and retires paper as the default format.
A six-month window closes
Electronic certificates had been available since 17 April 2026. Until 17 October 2026 inclusive, occupational physicians could choose between digital and classic paper documentation. That choice has now gone.
Exceptions apply only in narrowly defined cases explicitly set out in law — for instance where a certificate has to be issued on paper immediately.
For routine documentation, practices can use software already installed in their systems or the free state web application Gabinet.gov.pl. Data entered there flows straight into the central e-Zdrowia system.
What employees see
For staff, the practical shift is in how they store and view their records. The Centre for e-Health says patients reach their occupational health documents through the Internetowe Konto Pacjenta (IKP), the national online patient account.
Under Poland's occupational safety and health (BHP) framework, the switch covers every main category of examination: pre-employment checks before someone starts a job, regular periodic examinations, and follow-up checks triggered by a long period of sickness. The formal medical opinion — known in Polish as orzeczenie lekarskie — is filed directly in the insured person's personal profile.
Standards untouched
The administrative modernisation does not lower the medical bar. Representatives of Polish occupational medicine stress that the required scope of examinations and the clinical decision rules behind them remain completely unchanged. Doctors apply the same criteria they used when filling out certificates by hand.
