Money and health care – they usually appear together in messages and are usually about the lack of money and a long list of needs when it comes to treatment in Poland. The Minister of Health adds a new context: it concerns doctors' earnings. Very varied, sometimes very high. But how does this translate into the situation of patients?
While it is no secret that the National Health Fund is missing billions of zlotys and that they are added there from the state budget, i.e. from taxpayers' money, the Minister of Health confirms in a conversation with Konrad Piasecki: – Yes, there are some doctors who present an invoice of PLN 299 thousands – says the Minister of Health from the Civic Coalition, Izabela Leszczyna.
Monthly, and this is not about remuneration for working in a private facility. – This has been talked about for several weeks, this amount has already been announced – says Jakub Korus, a journalist from “Newsweek”.
– There will be no campaign against doctors and wages. Personally, I would expel anyone from the government who would try to arouse this type of emotions – says Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Supreme Medical Chamber has been waiting for two weeks for data on doctors' earnings in the public health care system, it wants to know how many of them receive PLN 50,000 or more every month. The Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tarification has not yet responded to this request.
It is known that the differences in the earnings of doctors are huge. – The average salary of specialist doctors, based on the employment contract, is PLN 11,641, the rest work for this money – informs Jakub Kosikowski from the Supreme Medical Chamber. The Chamber considers the topic of gigantic salaries to be a substitute.
“We need to find the culprit for the situation in the National Health Fund”
– I talked to the director of a hospital who had debts in parabanks and at the same time there was a doctor who earned PLN 100,000 a month. I'm asking, but how come you don't feel any such dissonance? And they said: fine, but if he is not there, he will leave, we will lose the contract with the National Health Fund, because this specialization is exactly what is needed – says Klara Klinger, editor-in-chief of the website rybzdrowie.pl.
– This record of these 300,000 from Warsaw is a specialist doctor from the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology subordinated to the Ministry of Health. We need to find the culprit for the situation in the National Health Fund, otherwise the government will not fix the situation – comments Jakub Kosikowski.
Leszczyna: there are doctors who present an invoice for PLN 299,000 per monthTVN24
– We have some ideas, but first I will talk about them with representatives of the community, doctors and nurses – says Izabela Leszczyna, Minister of Health from the Civic Coalition.
This year, the National Health Fund has already received over PLN 21 billion of additional money. – This was already known during the rule of the previous government, which was very afraid of 2024 and 2025 in the Ministry of Health, because they said: these will be crisis years, and I will come back to it, lessons have not been learned – points out Klara Klinger.
What does PiS say about this?
It seems that the politicians of the previous government do not have much to reproach themselves with. – Since already in the third quarter there was no money for the so-called overperformance, it is not, as I understand it, a burden on the Law and Justice government, because we have not been in power for 10 months – comments Law and Justice MP Zbigniew Kuźmiuk.
The Minister of Health points out that the obligations imposed by PiS on the National Health Fund do not correspond to the income from health insurance contributions and admits that sorting out the situation encountered by the Coalition government on October 15 is difficult.
– What overwhelms me is the fact that legislation, i.e. change, introduction of a regulation, act, takes a long time, longer than I would like – admits Izabela Leszczyna.
– This discussion should start and end with what service the patient should receive, because for me the most important thing is that we have free health care guaranteed in the constitution, and this is often a fiction. – says Patryk Michalski, journalist of Wirtualna Polska.
Patients wait in long queues to see specialists
In practice – despite increasing expenditure on health care – the situation does not look good. – The deadlines are the worst, whether to see an ophthalmologist or an orthopedist, I have to wait a really long time – says Mrs. Grażyna. – I have been waiting to see an endocrinologist for over two years – another interlocutor echoes her.
– My predecessors abolished the limits in outpatient specialist care, i.e. where cardiologists, neurologists, diabetologists and so on provide services. Have the queues shortened? No, they have become longer – points out Izabela Leszczyna.
Izabela Leszczyna assures that a team of experts is working to change this. In “Piasecki's Conversation” we also heard, among other things, that the minister is not involved in the discussion about reducing health insurance premiums for entrepreneurs, and that the Ministry of Health is considering solutions that will prevent pharmaceutical companies from making a fortune on reimbursed drugs.
– The system needs systemic changes – notes Izabela Leszczyna. During a meeting with the Prime Minister that lasted several hours on October 28, representatives of the Polish Association of District Hospital Employers were to hear from Prime Minister Donald Tusk that Polish hospitals lacked PLN 15 billion.
– Today, the contribution we collect from citizens is overwhelmingly sufficient for salaries, and this contribution is also to treat people. There is also the problem of refunds. Hospitals need to be maintained, so we have a problem to solve.
A declaration was made in “Piasecki's Rozmowa”. – Within four years, i.e. during this term, we will be able to repair the completely inefficient health care system inherited from eight years of PiS, says Izabela Leszczyna.
Main photo source: TVN24