Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda said the government plans to introduce recommended maximum spending on salaries within hospital budgets, as well as a proposed ceiling of PLN 240 (around EUR 55, USD 65) gross per hour for individual medical workers.
She told reporters that the measures were intended to address widening pay disparities and help financially strained hospitals manage labour costs, which she said account for 81 percent of hospital budgets on average.
Sobierańska-Grenda also announced plans to tighten oversight of physicians working simultaneously at multiple hospitals, a practice known in Poland as "suitcase doctors."
Under the proposal, doctors would be required to hold at least a part-time position at one hospital and obtain their primary employer's approval before taking additional jobs elsewhere.
The ministry also plans to require publicly funded hospitals to disclose the terms and remuneration of contracts awarded to outside medical service providers and introduce reporting of doctors' actual work schedules.
By the end of the year, the government also plans to launch an electronic waiting list system for planned hospital procedures.
Sobierańska-Grenda said patients would be able to track their place in line, compare waiting times at different hospitals and choose where to undergo treatment.
Responding to questions about calls for her resignation, Sobierańska-Grenda said she would continue in office as long as she retained the confidence of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Filip Nowak, head of the National Health Fund (NFZ), which finances Poland's public healthcare system, defended the proposed pay cap, saying it was designed to prevent excessive salaries from threatening the financial stability of hospitals.
He said some facilities were struggling with labour costs and warned that unchecked spending could put access to healthcare at risk in some parts of the country.
The proposed reforms follow reports of widespread irregularities in the system.
Poland's parliament last month approved legislation allowing authorities to collect detailed data on the earnings of medical professionals as part of an effort to improve oversight of healthcare spending.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the proposal was prompted in part by reports that a doctor still undergoing specialist training earned about PLN 1.6 million (EUR 380,000, USD 440,000) last year, an unusually high amount in an economy where the average monthly wage is below PLN 10,000.
At the moment, hospitals and clinics provide authorities with anonymised salary data, making it impossible to determine the total income earned by individual doctors working under multiple contracts, according to the government.
Sobierańska-Grenda said in May that her ministry was analysing measures to limit payroll costs to between 60 percent and 70 percent of hospital budgets.
She said wage costs at some hospitals exceeded the institutions' available funding.
Many doctors in Poland work under civil-law arrangements rather than standard employment contracts, giving them greater flexibility to negotiate pay, particularly in specialties facing staff shortages.
Łukasz Jankowski, head of the Polish Chamber of Physicians (NIL), has said doctors with around six years of experience who work on contracts earn an average gross monthly income of PLN 20,000 to PLN 30,000.
According to Jankowski, around 600 doctors in Poland earn more than PLN 100,000 (EUR 23,500, USD 27,250) gross per month.
He said the highest-paid physicians are typically specialists in short supply whose services are essential for hospitals to maintain operations.
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Source: IAR, PAP