Hospitals are about to undergo a revolution. The government will allocate PLN 1.149 billion for consolidation

The government will allocate PLN 1.149 billion for the consolidation of clinics, Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda announced on Thursday. The call for applications for the competition for co-financing hospital consolidation processes will start on July 1 and will last until October 30, 2026.

The idea of ​​hospital consolidation was already discussed at the end of 2025. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health presented details of the competition for hospitals.

The amount allocated for this purpose is PLN 1.149 billion. The maximum allowable amount of targeted subsidy will be PLN 20 million in the case of intra-entity consolidation and PLN 70 million in the case of inter-entity consolidation. The call for applications will start on July 1 and will last until October 30, 2026. On Thursday, the ministry will publish the competition documentation with the criteria for selecting entities.

– Consolidation processes are a direction very desired by patients and local government officials. We spent months on talks and consultations with voivodeship marshals, starostas and hospital directors, said Sobierańska-Grenda at a press conference in Warsaw on Thursday.

As the minister explained, medical entities will be able to receive funding for the modernization, purchase of equipment or reconstruction of the facility. Not only consolidation between hospitals is possible, but also a change in the business profile of two or three departments. The hospital will receive 100 percent. co-financing for a given project.

– We should actually call it financing, not co-financing – said Sobierańska-Grenda.

Some facilities have been participating in consolidation since the beginning of the year. An example is the consolidation of the West Pomeranian Oncology Center and the Zdroje hospital in Szczecin. The aim of consolidation is to ensure financial stability, but also to offer services at the highest level.

– The release of funds from the medical fund to carry out consolidation processes in hospitals is one of the activities that is either already in the legal order or will be introduced there in the near future. We are starting with creating a large legal framework at the level of the Act, i.e. amending the Act on Medical Activities, said Jakub Szulc, vice-president of the National Health Fund.

As he explained, it is currently possible to run the hospital by an association of local government units. Medical facilities can participate in consolidation without changing ownership.

Director of the Department of Medicine at the Ministry of Health, Maciej Karaszewski, emphasized that district hospitals, i.e. facilities with the first level of PSZ security (Basic Hospital Security – PAP), should be more involved in the consolidation process. This applies primarily to hospitals that are close to each other. Currently, they report the problem of mutual competition, including: in terms of staff.

In March, the Ministry of Health informed PAP that it was working to support the transformation of hospitals. He emphasized that he was not liquidating the hospital industry, and the consolidation was intended to help the facilities.

According to the Ministry of Health, the consolidation of services will bring benefits to patients and will include, among others: higher quality of treatment, comprehensive care, shorter waiting times and better access to modern diagnostics. The Ministry of Health argues that it is adapting the health care system to the realities determined by demography. Changes are also forced by the gap in health financing. In the 2026 National Health Fund budget, it was estimated at PLN 23 billion.

The hospital reform law entered into force in September last year. It gives hospitals the opportunity to consolidate and reprofile departments without the risk of losing the contract with the National Health Fund. Work on the act lasted several months. (PAP)

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