Increases in health care. The ministry wants to postpone the payment date

The tripartite health care panel did not discuss on Wednesday a proposal to postpone minimum wage increases from July to January. Deputy Minister of Health Katarzyna Kęcka noted that changes slowing down wage growth, despite prolonged talks, will be introduced before July.

The tripartite health care team deliberated for over five hours.

Kęcka announced at a press briefing that the trade union had submitted a request for a break. The team did not have time to discuss the Ministry of Health's proposal to make the minimum wage increases come into force not in July, but in January, starting from 2027, and to link the wage increase with an indicator with lower dynamics than the current one.

The deputy minister of health said that the point regarding pay increases was “effectively moved” by the trade union to March 16, when the team meeting was scheduled to continue. Kęcka noted that the Ministry of Health will manage to introduce the proposed changes “even more quickly” so that they come into force before July 1.

Chairwoman of the National Board of the National Trade Union of Doctors (OZZL), Grażyna Cebula-Kubat, emphasized that the trade union is not prolonging talks on changes to the minimum wage indexation mechanism. She emphasized that the trade union side must have time to familiarize itself with the documents presented by the Ministry of Health.

On July 1, minimum wages in health care are to increase by 8.8%.

President of the Polish Hospital Federation: the value of unsettled benefits for 2025 is PLN 8 billion

The National Health Fund has not yet paid PLN 8 billion for services provided last year, Jarosław Fedorowski, president of the Polish Hospital Federation, told PAP after Wednesday's meeting of the tripartite health team.

Federowski said that according to the information presented by the National Health Fund, unlimited benefits unpaid in 2025 will cost PLN 2.1 billion, drug programs – PLN 1.2 billion, and other – PLN 4.9 billion.

According to PAP's source in the tripartite commission, the National Health Fund was to inform that it had released the migration reserve of PLN 1.1 billion and directed it to finance liabilities from previous years. The Fund was to receive an additional PLN 6 billion in subsidies from the budget in 2026, and the remaining part would go to the National Health Fund in the form of installments of PLN 2 billion per month.

When asked whether, due to the financial situation of the National Health Fund, hospitals limit patient admissions, the President of the Polish Hospital Federation said that in the absence of a guarantee of financing for all medically justified services, management is based on facts.

The National Health Fund noted that the final settlement of the previous year, in accordance with the law, takes place in the second half of February of the following year, and the process of balancing contracts and settling the 2025 budget is ongoing.

Last year, the Ministry of Health and the National Health Fund estimated the National Health Fund deficit in 2026 at PLN 23 billion. (PAP)

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