Zbigniew Konwiński, head of the Civic Coalition (KO) Parliamentary Club, said on Monday that the party leadership had voted to remove Lenz from both the party and its parliamentary caucus.
Konwiński told Polsat News that the decision was made by circulating a motion among members of the party leadership, on the recommendation of the party chairman. He said the move amounted to “the most severe decision” the party could take against the senator.
The case concerns a medical procedure performed March 15 at a hospital in Aleksandrów Kujawski, in north-central Poland. Wirtualna Polska reported that the procedure, involving Lenz’s son, had been carried out outside the standard National Health Fund (NFZ) queue and with the participation of senior doctors who were on duty in separate hospital departments at the time.
NFZ, which finances public health care, later inspected the hospital and imposed a PLN 134,000 fine. The hospital has 14 days to appeal.
Barbara Nawrocka, spokeswoman for the regional branch of the NFZ in Kujawy-Pomerania Province, said the inspection found that the hospital had failed to provide proper round-the-clock medical care in its general and oncological surgery ward and in its anesthesiology and intensive care ward on March 15. She said the problem arose because the only doctors on duty in those wards provided a service outside the publicly funded health care system while they were on duty.
Konwiński said the hospital incident involving Lenz had damaged the party. “We know how this was received by our voters,” he said. Asked whether Civic Coalition or Lenz would help the hospital pay the fine, Konwiński said consequences should be borne by those who made decisions in the case. He added that the party had acted after the NFZ inspection results by taking the strongest possible step against the senator.
Lenz earlier said he was at the “full disposal” of Civic Coalition authorities to explain the matter and would accept any decision on his membership. In an April 7 statement, he said the procedure involving his son had been performed in hospital conditions by doctors on duty that day, with proper medical procedures observed.
In a later online statement, Lenz and his wife said the documentation concerning the procedure on their 13-year-old child was in the possession of the parents, NFZ inspectors and the Regional Medical Chamber in Toruń. They accused the hospital director of spreading claims in the media that the hospital did not have the documentation and filed a notice with prosecutors alleging a possible crime.
Hospital director Mariusz Trojanowski said Wednesday that the findings of the hospital’s internal commission matched those of the NFZ. “This shows that Mr. Lenz’s version is not reflected in reality,” he said.
Trojanowski earlier said the internal commission had uncovered a document that had been altered or supplemented. He said this concerned the ward’s doctors’ logbook, where the procedure was manually recorded on an attached page.
The case is now also being examined by prosecutors. On April 30, the regional prosecutor in Gdańsk transferred two proceedings concerning the Aleksandrów Kujawski hospital to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Bydgoszcz, including the case involving Lenz’s minor son.
The proceedings were moved outside the Włocławek district, which would normally handle the case, and also outside the Toruń district. Prosecutors cited potential local sensitivities, as Trojanowski is active in Civic Coalition structures in Aleksandrów County, while Lenz was elected to the Senate from the Civic Coalition list in a district covering Toruń and nearby counties.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP