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New medical fund will help Poles with cancer, rare diseases: president

09.03.2020 01:00
Polish President Andrzej Duda has said a planned new PLN 2.7 billion (EUR 628m, USD 712m) Medical Fund he has proposed will help pay for treatment for patients with cancer and rare diseases.
Andrzej Duda
Andrzej Duda Photo: PAP/Wojciech Olkuśnik

Public broadcaster Polish Radio reported that details of the planned new fund were expected to be revealed over the next several weeks.

"This is a sum of PLN 2.7 billion, which will be used for oncology [treatment], primarily for children, as well as [to treat] rare diseases,” Duda said on Sunday.

He added that among the aims of the fund was to cover the costs of operations performed outside Poland.

He said that parents of sick children often have to hold public collections to raise cash for such treatment.

Duda emphasized that the fund would constitute additional support, over and above the PLN 104 billion earmarked in the budget this year for public health services.

Funding for cancer treatment has been an issue of fierce political debate in Poland recently.

Duda on Friday said he had signed into law a plan to give a PLN 1.95 billion boost to his country’s public media broadcasters to compensate them for lost licence fee income.

Opposition politicians had called for the money to be allocated to treat cancer patients instead.

(pk/gs)

Source: PAP/IAR/Polish Radio