Last chance therapy, as it is called Emergency Access to Drug Technologies, will be continued at the University Hospital in Krakow. As the Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights informed on Tuesday, the facility signed a contract with the National Health Fund for the purchase of necessary drugs. Earlier, the hospital announced that due to financial reasons the program would end at the end of March.
Emergency Access to Drug Technologies (RDTL), described as the therapy of last resort for the most seriously ill, will continue at the University Hospital in Krakow, contrary to earlier announcements. The office of the Patient Rights Ombudsman (RPP) informed about this on Tuesday.
We wrote about the problem here: The hospital plans to stop the therapy of last resort. Ombudsman: This is a violation of patient rights
“On February 13, the hospital signed an annex to the contract with the Małopolskie OW NFZ, allowing for the purchase of drugs necessary to continue therapy in 2023 for patients covered by the RDTL. Uniwersytecki Marcin Jędrychowski in a letter to the spokesman.
RDTL enables financing therapy of people who have already used all available, reimbursed methods. The most common are cancer and hematological diseases.
Patient’s Rights Ombudsman vs. University Hospital
In January, the authorities of the Krakow hospital announced that Emergency Access to Drug Technologies would be suspended at the end of March. The doctors said that are unable to continue the program due to insufficient funding for 2023 from the National Health Fund. RDTL in the facility is used by 86 patients who would have to look for another place where they could continue their treatment.
This announcement was met with a sharp reaction from the Ombudsman for Patients’ Rights, who initiated an action at the facility proceedings regarding “violation of collective patient rights” due to discontinuation of therapy.
We would like to point out that access to therapy for patients could be ensured without the need to initiate proceedings by the Commissioner, in the mode of ongoing cooperation between the hospital and the OW National Health Fund, which we encourage in the future.
Increased RDTL funding
On February 1, the president of the National Health Fund, Filip Nowak, announced at a press conference in Krakow that in 2023, the financing under the RDTL for facilities throughout the country will amount to PLN 300 million in total, although PLN 200 million was originally planned.
– This means that all patients who have been included in treatment (RDTL – ed.) have guaranteed this treatment, and healthcare providers have guaranteed financing for the treatment of all patients – noted the president. The amount of nearly PLN 300 million is both to cover current RDTL therapies and to pay for surpluses for 2022.
The increase in funding for RDTL NFZ is justified by high demand. In 2022, PLN 180 million was allocated for this programme.
The University Hospital in Krakow spent PLN 12 million last year on surpluses under the RDTL. Continuation of the RDTL treatment started in 2022 would cost the hospital approx. PLN 20 million in 2023.
Main photo source: TVN24