Poland’s healthcare workforce continued to expand in 2025, with more doctors, nurses and physiotherapists working directly with patients. The improvement is real, but it does not mean the staffing problem has been solved. Poland still has relatively low numbers of doctors and nurses compared with many EU countries, and the national averages conceal large differences between regions.
According to Statistics Poland, 143,600 doctors worked directly with patients at the end of 2025, up 2,400 from the previous year. The number of nurses increased by 3,100 to 223,000, while the number of physiotherapists rose by 2,500 to 64,600.
Growth was slower among dentists and midwives, whose numbers reached approximately 37,000 and 29,000 respectively.
More professionals do not automatically mean shorter queues
The most important distinction in the data is between people who are licensed to practise and those who are actually working with patients. Poland had around 171,200 licensed doctors living in the country, but only 143,600 were recorded as working directly with patients.
The gap is even larger in nursing. Around 330,900 people held professional nursing rights, while 223,000 were working with patients.
These figures should not be interpreted as a reserve that can simply be moved into hospitals. The licensed group includes retirees, people working outside direct patient care, those temporarily inactive and professionals who have moved into other parts of the healthcare system. The difference nevertheless shows that expanding university admissions is only one part of the staffing challenge.
Working conditions, shift patterns, administrative burden, pay and opportunities for professional development all influence whether qualified staff remain in clinical work.
Poland is still behind on doctors and nurses
International comparisons show why the issue remains important. Based on Eurostat data used by Statistics Poland, Poland had around 38.6 practising doctors per 10,000 residents in 2024, compared with an average of roughly 45.2 among the EU countries included in the comparison.
The gap was wider for nurses: Poland recorded about 60.1 nurses per 10,000 residents, compared with an average of around 80.7 in the comparable EU group.
The picture is more favourable in some other professions. Poland has relatively high numbers of midwives and physiotherapists per capita, and the physiotherapy workforce has been expanding particularly quickly.
Regional inequality is one of the biggest problems
National statistics can hide the most important issue for patients: where medical professionals actually work.
In 2025, the number of doctors per 10,000 residents was highest in Mazowieckie and Łódzkie, while Lubuskie, Opolskie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie recorded much lower levels. The gap between the best- and worst-served regions was close to 20 doctors per 10,000 residents.
Nursing shows a different geography. Świętokrzyskie and Lubelskie had some of the highest ratios, while Pomorskie and several western regions were among the weakest.
These differences reflect the location of medical universities, large teaching hospitals and specialist centres, but also local labour-market conditions. Smaller cities and less affluent regions often face a much harder recruitment problem even when the national workforce is growing.
Ukrainian medical professionals are becoming more visible
Migration has also contributed to the expansion of Poland’s healthcare workforce. The number of Ukrainian doctors working directly with patients rose substantially after 2022 and reached almost 2,700 by the end of 2025. Ukrainian nurses have also become more numerous, although they still represent a small share of the total workforce.
This can help ease shortages, particularly in some specialties and locations, but it is not a substitute for long-term workforce planning. Training a doctor takes many years, while demographic ageing is likely to increase demand for healthcare faster than the overall population grows.
The next challenge is productivity and retention
Poland’s staffing problem is therefore changing. The question is no longer simply whether the number of medical professionals is rising — it is. The more difficult question is whether hospitals and clinics can retain them, distribute them more evenly and organise work so that more professional time is spent on patient care.
For employers, this means competition for staff is likely to remain intense, especially outside the largest urban centres. Salary will remain important, but flexibility, workload, training opportunities and working conditions will increasingly determine where professionals choose to work.
The 2025 data are encouraging because all five major professions analysed by Statistics Poland recorded growth. But for patients, the real measure of success will be whether that growth translates into shorter waiting times and better access to care across the country.
Sources: Statistics Poland, “Human resources in selected medical professions based on administrative sources in 2025”; Eurostat healthcare personnel data.
