Regional Military Medical Commissions (Rejonowe Wojskowe Komisje Lekarskie, RWKL), together with the Regional Military Maritime Medical Commission and the Regional Military Aviation Medical Commission, issue rulings on all health-related matters of critical importance to a soldier. However, these rulings are not always correct.
What matters do the Regional Commissions rule on?
Regional Military Medical Commissions — both the general commissions, of which there are 11 across Poland, and the specialist commissions (Maritime and Aviation) — are responsible for ruling on matters relating to the health of military personnel. Their remit encompasses not only the assessment of fitness for service (both professional and active), but also fitness for work, the degree of health impairment sustained in connection with an accident or an illness arising from the particular conditions of service, and related matters.
Commission rulings are frequently of critical significance for soldiers — they can determine whether a soldier remains in service or not, and may affect the level of pension or retirement benefit to which they are entitled. It is therefore essential to ensure that such rulings reflect reality as accurately as possible.
Grounds for appeal
Nobody is infallible — including the medical officers serving on the Commissions. As a result, rulings issued are not always entirely correct: on occasion, a person fit for service may be found unfit (or vice versa); in other cases, there may be an erroneous assessment of fitness for work or an incorrect diagnosis.
Since rulings are treated as administrative decisions within the meaning of the Code of Administrative Procedure (Kodeks postępowania administracyjnego), they are subject to appeal, which is lodged through the Regional Commission to the Central Military Medical Commission (Centralna Wojskowa Komisja Lekarska). The time limit for lodging an appeal is 14 days from the date on which the ruling is served on the addressee.
Merits of an appeal
Ruling by Regional Military Medical Commissions operates at the intersection of law and medicine. Every ruling should be analysed from both a purely medical perspective — that is, whether the conditions have been correctly identified, their nature and severity properly assessed, and so forth — and a legal perspective, in particular with regard to the classification of the diagnosed condition under Annex No. 1 to the Regulation (which forms the basis for the assignment of a given fitness category), the correctness of the evidentiary proceedings, and the ruling itself. Crucially, the Central Military Medical Commission may set aside or vary a ruling only where the identified errors have an actual bearing on its substance.
My experience
As a lawyer who has been assisting military personnel for many years, I have conducted several dozen appeal proceedings against rulings of Regional Military Medical Commissions. In my experience, the Central Military Medical Commission examines the matter raised in an appeal thoroughly and comprehensively, frequently requires additional medical examinations, and not infrequently finds in favour of the submissions contained in the appeal. This means that lodging an appeal — where, of course, the circumstances justify doing so — is always a worthwhile course of action, as it may lead to a ruling that more accurately reflects reality and is, more often than not, more favourable to the soldier.