“Hospitals couldn’t plan spending, buy medicines and equipment, because our financial liquidity has been shaken,” said Waldemar Malinowski, head of the National Association of County Hospital Employers (OZPSP). “We had money on paper.”
Malinowski said three years of talks led by the ministry on changing the mechanism for minimum-wage increases had produced no results, while annual pay rises take effect in July and hospitals were running out of time to prepare.
“Politicians have not secured money for pay rises,” he said. “We cannot allow the funds for pay rises to come from money meant to treat patients.” He said OZPSP was giving the ministry until the end of March to resolve how the hikes will be financed.
Andrzej Płonka, head of the Union of Polish Counties (ZPP), said hospitals and wards were being shut because funding was insufficient, blaming the government.
“County hospitals are being closed not because county governments are closing them,” he said. “We’re closing them because there are no funds from the NFZ. The minister closes them, the government closes them.” He added: “We do not agree that wards are being closed ‘at random’.”
OZPSP said in demands submitted to the ministry that it wants payment for services provided in 2025, monthly payments from April for unlimited services, and full state-budget financing of minimum-wage hikes in healthcare. It also called for an end to measures that reduce county hospitals’ revenues and profitability by eliminating or cutting adjustment coefficients.
Deputy Health Minister Tomasz Maciejewski received the demands and said he was ready for talks.
(jh)
Source: PAP