“We have not received payment for the months of October and November despite the expiry of the time specified in the contracts,” doctors from the hospital in Świętochłowice wrote to the Prime Minister. The facility explains that it cannot settle the debt because this is what its recovery plan is based on.
Doctors from the district hospital in Świętochłowice in Silesia appealed to the Prime Minister Donald Tusk asking for intervention. As they claim in the letter sent on Monday, the authorities of the facility do not want to talk to them, and the mayor of the city does not respond to their appeals for help.
“We have not received payment for the months of October and November despite the expiry of the time specified in the contracts,” we read in the letter to the Prime Minister.
We talked to several doctors who found themselves in this situation. They asked for anonymity.
– Today we managed to talk to the president of the hospital, but it didn't help. We found out they couldn't pay us back. They are supposedly looking for a solution, but at the moment we only know that we will not receive the outstanding money. – they say
As they wrote to the Prime Minister, the arrears concern about 300 medics working at the facility in Świętochłowice under civil law contracts. The medics knew that the hospital had been in a terrible situation for a long time, but – as they assure – no one warned them that the recovery plan would be developed at their expense.
Rehabilitation proceedings
December has started. Doctors at the Świętochłowice hospital worked for the third month without pay. They were used to it. – We were paid a month late – they say. – We had to call and demand money, but we knew it would be available eventually. The medical director also asked us to take more shifts in November. Well, we took it. We didn't think we were working for free.
And suddenly, on December 9, the hospital announced that rehabilitation proceedings had begun in the facility (from “sanatio”, Latin for “healing”). The management of the hospital was taken over by the commercial court. The hospital can still provide treatment, but it does not decide anything and must undergo restructuring. In return, the law protects him from creditors. Also from doctors to whom he owes remuneration. – Nothing protects us – say doctors. They had to pay tax on income they did not receive.
They asked their lawyer friends about this situation. – They advised us to check whether we are on the list of creditors. Nothing more can be done. Maybe in three years, because that's how long the restructuring proceedings last, we will get these arrears, but it's not certain – they say. – Sanation proceedings are a state within a state. We feel robbed in the eyes of the law, they add. They also earn money in other places, but for some the hospital in Świętochłowice was the main source of income.
– We will not receive any money for the work performed, not even an advance payment, and we have no possibility of claiming it. We're driving sole proprietorships. We have paid tax on issued invoices, we have families, liabilities, loans – they are nervous.
“We earned this money with honest and hard work”
Dominika Maciejczyk, spokeswoman for the hospital in Świętochłowice, admits that the facility “due to formal reasons is unable to pay remuneration to some people providing medical services to the hospital, i.e. colleagues employed on the basis of civil law contracts and mandate contracts payable in November.”
This is Article 252(1). 1 of the Restructuring Law, which states that “from the date of opening of the accelerated arrangement proceedings until the date of their completion or the date of the decision to discontinue the accelerated arrangement proceedings becomes final, the debtor or the administrator may not provide benefits arising from receivables that are covered by the arrangement by operation of law.” .
600 people work in the hospital. Half of them have an employment contract. In the doctors' letter to the Prime Minister, we read that the salaries of 300 others have been frozen. The hospital did not tell us the number of doctors and the amount involved.
Civil law contracts are available to employees in all hospital wards, in clinics, i.e. in the so-called primary health care (POS) and on night and holiday shifts, i.e. night medical assistance (NPL).
The doctors we talked to work at npl. There are no jobs there at all. So everyone was left without pay for two months.
– It's hard work – they say. – Patients come with health problems that they have had for a long time, but they do not go to their family doctor because they want to avoid queues to specialists. We make home visits to dangerous environments and to people abusing alcohol and drugs. We earned this money through honest and hard work, they say.
Will doctors from the clinic receive advance payments?
The hospital assures that no one, apart from six nurses who were dismissed in October, was given notice of dismissal due to restructuring. Only the employment structure changed.
– Our contracts were terminated at the end of December and it was proposed to sign a contract with an external company which, from January, will act as an intermediary in night and holiday shifts in the hospital – say doctors from npl.
A similar proposal was heard by doctors from the One of them revealed in a conversation with us that despite the renovation, the hospital promised them to repay the debt. – We were offered an agreement. If we stay, we will receive outstanding wages in the form of advance payments by the end of January, he says.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the doctors pointed out this injustice. We asked the hospital if this was true. Why were doctors working at night and on holidays treated worse than those working during the day? We didn't get an answer.
The three-billion maternity ward generated the greatest losses
Świętochłowice is one of the smallest, most densely populated and poorest towns with district rights in Poland. In 2019, they modernized the maternity ward in the only hospital – for PLN 3 billion, adding PLN 800,000 to the EU subsidy. Last year, the city planned to close it because it generated the greatest losses. In a statement sent to the media, the authorities assure that repair programs were introduced and strictly enforced at the facility, but to no avail.
“The current situation of district hospitals in Poland, including ZOZ Świętochłowice, is a consequence of the problem of the inappropriate financing mechanism of medical services by the National Health Fund, which has been growing for years. Despite the best intentions, the hospital is not able to balance itself – when its annual maintenance costs and the increase in employee salaries are not go hand in hand with the indexation of the value of services by the National Health Fund. The hospital, like many other district hospitals, informed about such a threat. The announced reform of the health care system has not taken place, but is deepening The deficit from month to month meant that the only solution was to start restructuring proceedings following the example of other institutions, which took place on December 9 this year. – explains the spokeswoman of the facility.
After announcing the renovation of the hospital, the president of Świętochłowice, Daniel Beger, also appealed to the prime minister. – Despite many efforts made to ensure continuity of medical care for the residents of Świętochłowice and the surrounding area, today we are on the threshold of a situation in which without government support we will be forced to limit the provision of medical services – he wrote.
According to the president, the city is unable to cover the losses generated by the hospital. – Especially in the face of the reduction of the so-called “government drip”, which last year amounted to PLN 30 million. PLN, and in the current one only 9.2 million. The difference and the lack of over PLN 20 million make it impossible to cover the shortfall in the hospital budget.
As we learned at the city hall, the Prime Minister has not yet responded to the appeal of the Świętochłowice authorities.
At night there will be one doctor instead of two
Is the hospital at risk of closing departments?
– In terms of patient protection, the quality of medical services and the number of contracts implemented do not change National Health Fund“- assures the spokeswoman of the facility.
What will the intermediation of a private company change in arranging night and holiday shifts? The hospital did not explain this.
– Previously, there were two doctors on duty, a pediatrician and an internist treating adults – doctors from npl told us. – Now everyone will be seen by a pediatrician or an internist. Instead of two, there will be one doctor – they say.
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