The exhibition is presented in the Rafał building, part of the former ‘Juliusz’ hospital complex, spread over four floors of the former hospital and alluding to it in its nature. The individual exhibition rooms visually relate to contemporary and former hospital spaces.
An important educational aspect of the exhibition is to familiarise visitors with the functioning of the medical facility, medical equipment and treatments. As visitors wander through the successive wards, with the help of a variety of interactive learning stations, they are introduced to medical tools and technologies, learn about anatomy and the principles of the human body.
Upon entering the exhibition, visitors are familiarised with basic information about medicine, its origins, goals and fundamental ethical principles, and visit the first two rooms, which are introductory and dedicated to saving life and health, where realistic projections immerse the viewer in the ongoing fight for human life and allow them to feel the excitement of working in the emergency room.
The next stages of the tour are the hospital wards, which are the most important part of the Museum. From the perspective of the various specialities, the visitor learns about the inside of the human body and the diseases associated with the organs concerned, as well as their treatment and prevention. Visitors to the Museum, with the help of a variety of interactive learning stations, often referring to real hospital equipment, learn about medical tools and technologies, anatomy and the principles of functioning of the human body.
The exhibition presents selected hospital wards and assigned topics: orthopaedics and traumatology ward, otolaryngology ward, neurology ward, ophthalmology ward, cardiology ward, gynaecology-obstetrics ward, urology ward, pulmonology ward, gastroenterology ward, dermatology ward, internal medicine ward, oncology ward, diagnostic unit and operating room.
The next stage of the tour takes the visitor to the hospital archive located in the attic, where selected aspects of the history of medicine and pharmacy are presented. There is a mysterious library with medical treatises from antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times, a museum storage room with ancient treasures, numerous dioramas depicting medical procedures over the centuries, a kind of panopticum and two reconstructed medical rooms. The exhibition presents the development of medicine and pharmacy from the early 19th century to the present day.