On Tuesday, the Sejm adopted a hospital reform, which is primarily to help poviat hospitals, which are most often in poor financial condition. It is a draft act amending the Act on healthcare services financed from public funds and the Act on medical activity Sejm print No. 1538). 231 deputies voted for the law, 203 were against, two people abstained. This is a success, because the act could not go through the government for a long time, it was changed several times. And her history dates back to PiS times. A similar project in 2023 went to the basket because local government officials protested.
The new regulations are to motivate hospitals to voluntarily connect, As Izabela Leszczyna said, the former health minister, who, however, prepared this project.
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Deputy Minister of Health Jerzy Szafranowicz explained at a meeting with journalists that hospital reform is necessary because of demography, medical deficit and hospital debt. – Seniors more and more (…). We need geriatric departments, ZOL-I, hospices, day rehabilitation departments-he noted.
The Act will enable the creation of not only independent public healthcare facilities (SPZOZ), but also capital companies and budgetary units, as well as combining the merger of SPZOZ with various forming entities. Thanks to this solution, SPZOZ will be able to connect the local government units, which will result in more effective, larger healing entities. And this so -called The left and the Together party were afraid of commercialization.
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As a result Voting on the act was a test for the coalition. The day before there was no majority for her. The left announced that it would not support the project, but ultimately in the name of “higher necessity” she changed her mind.
Perhaps she remembered the hard declaration of Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Over a week ago, he announced that “from the next sitting of the Sejm, none of the ladies of the minister and ministers can vote differently than we decided to jointly as a government towards government projects, because these are not discussion meetings.” Although two left MPs abstained – Dorota Olko and Daria Gosek -Popiołek. According to Marcelina Zawisza from the Party Together, a law was adopted that will lead to the disappearance of branches in the poviats.
Rradca Prawny, an expert of the Union of Polish Poviats Bernadeta Skóbel, told PAP that “the government's hospital reform does not introduce any gate to commercialize or privatize.” She added that the fear of commercialization is imaginary.
The act had to go through the Sejm, because it is one of the KPO milestones. For its lack, we would lose some EU funds. It's about PLN 10 billion.
The Act also obliges specific entities to prepare repair programs. They will have to prepare those facilities whose net loss is higher than 1 percent. revenues. At the request of the Minister of Health, such a program will be able to give opinions on the Agency for Medical Technology and Tariffs. According to MZ data, if the provision on the obligation to draw up a recovery program covered the report for 2023, it would include 239 out of nearly a thousand hospitals.
Now the law will go to the Senate. It is to apply from January 1, 2026.
