In the Parliament on the remuneration of nurses. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki talked to nurses in the gallery

The first reading of the citizens’ bill on the method of determining nurses’ remuneration took place in the Sejm on Wednesday. Previously, the first reading of the project was held at the meeting on July 13, but due to the end of the term, the process started again.

Krystyna Ptok, president of the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives, said that “the situation of nurses and midwives has not changed and is not changing.” – The awareness of the realities of performing these professions does not change either, we accompany people from birth to death. You won’t be operated on without us, because we prepare the operating theaters for operation. We assist with anesthesia. We prepare the patient for the procedure. We install catheters, perform ECGs, and operate ventilators. This is not an easy matter, she emphasized.

She also said that nurses “were on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic.” – Our job is to help. We are always ready to act. I’m standing here because we need your help now, she appealed. – The average lifespan of nurses is 62 years. For comparison, the average life expectancy of women in Poland is 82 years. The average nurse lives shorter than the average Polish woman, said Ptok.

Katarzyna Sójka z PISformer Minister of Health, said that “the proposed changes were developed by one trade union, undoubtedly representing a particularly important and crucial professional community of nurses and midwives for us.”

– They were not agreed with other professional groups whose remuneration is also regulated by this Act – she noted.

Ewa Szymanowska from Poland 2050 said that she “talked to people affected by the project.” – I found out that until 2021, the employer would report what qualifications his employees had and, on this basis, receive National Health Fund appropriations to cover salaries, in relation to these data. The financing method was changed in July 2022. It consisted in the fact that hospitals received too little increases in contracts with the National Health Fund in relation to the increase in costs, which resulted in facility directors starting to treat qualifications as discretionary, she said.

She added that “employees were even demoted to save on their salaries.”

Jarosław Rzepa z PSL he said that his club “will always stand on the side of health care workers, especially in the case of gross injustices suffered by nurses and midwives throughout Poland.”

– Today we have a chance to correct the mistakes for which the current government is responsible – he said.

Marcelina Zawisza from the Left explained that “the project implements the demands for the recognition of nurses’ education, responds to the need for fair treatment in determining the wages of nurses with many years of experience, and guarantees the implementation of the provisions of the Act on the lowest wages in health care, funds sufficient to pay them.”

– We are proceeding with the project because of the government Mateusz Morawiecki was unable to prepare a bill that would not have holes, she accused the government.

While the debate was going on, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki went to the parliamentary gallery, where he talked to the nurses gathered there watching the proceedings.

Dorota Ronek, secretary of the Management Board of the National Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives, talked about the conversation with Morawiecki. – The Prime Minister has not talked to us before, even though we, as the Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives, have repeatedly sent letters asking for an interview. Besides, not only to the Prime Minister, but also to all politicians in power in the previous term, but also to opposition politicians, she said.

– There was no positive response from that side. What worries us is that the Prime Minister today is asking about the details of the bill, where the bill already exists, today it is having its first reading again, and he has not read the bill and does not know its details from the first reading in the previous term, she added.

Later, Dariusz Joński from the Civic Coalition commented on this from the parliamentary podium. – I wonder where this row is? Where is the minister? Where is Prime Minister Morawiecki? PiS had to lose for Prime Minister Morawiecki to find time to meet with nurses. When the government is leaving, there is time, he said.

The bill – without any opposition from any side – was referred to the public finance committee and the health committee.