The Supreme Audit Office took a closer look at cancer treatment in 2019-2023. According to controllers, the implementation of the national oncological network failed, although it cost PLN 130 million. Oncologists themselves are of a similar opinion, who also point to other factors.
At Mrs. Urszula, the uterine patient with cancer, despite recurrence, the treatment is very good. – Thanks to the doctors, thanks to the staff who are here, they are very empathic, they know patients almost from names. It also gives such a feeling that you are in the right place, that you are important – says the patient of the University Hospital in Krakow.
Not all patients are so lucky, and the report of the Supreme Audit Office, which took a closer look at cancer treatment in 2019-2023, evaluates them badly. The report shows that the implementation of the National Oncological Network failed, although it cost PLN 130 million.
– The number of specialist doctors in some regions was almost five times higher than in others, and there were no hematologists and children's oncologists in the Opolskie Voivodeship – indicates Marcin Marjański from the Supreme Audit Office.
– Quality is not monitored in healthcare. There was a chance to change it. Unfortunately, she was wasted – notes prof. Jacek Jassem, oncologist from the Medical University of Gdańsk. This makes patients migrate looking for the best treatment.
Oncologists are missing in Poland. “The situation will deteriorate”Katarzyna Czupryńska-Chabros/Fakt in the afternoon TVN24
Selection of therapy and financing from the NFZ
Oncologist, Dr. Łukasz Kwinta accepts patients in Krakow from distant corners of Poland. – The load on the work is very high and even if we want and do, of course, everything we can, well, we certainly can't spend as much time to patients as they require – says the oncologist.
– How much time does an oncologist have in oncological clinics in large centers? It is 3 to 5 minutes. There is only time to write a prescription and check if there is a response to treatment in a given tomography, but to tell you, meeting the patient, it does not exist – sums up prof. Cezary Szczylik, head of the clinical oncology and chemotherapy department of the European Health Center in Otwock.
Read also: Excess bureaucracy, stress and mental burden. Young doctors do not want to specialize in oncology
Oncologist, Professor Cezary Szczylik, says this from his own experience as a patient. Therefore, that there are plenty of doctors, he considers the most urgent to encourage medical students to choose oncology. – Decorating is higher than in Europe by 25-30 percent and I think that this has not changed for twenty years – the professor points out.
And this will not change without forcing effective treatment – believes, in turn, Professor Piotr Wysocki, head of the Oncology Clinical Department of the University Hospital in Krakow. Without indicating specific hospitals, the oncologist talks about those who know that a given therapy would be better for the patient, but receives the one for which the hospital will get more money from the National Health Fund.
– It cannot be that doctors have tools with the guidelines, they know specifically how to treat these patients so that their prognosis is the best and use the treatment that is the most profitable for a given hospital – says Professor Piotr Wysocki.
Source of the main photo: Facts of TVN