Doctors will not have a “rigid ceiling” in earnings? The resort is changing its tactics

Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda said on Friday that she is considering solutions that do not require the introduction of an upper salary limit in health care. She added that the ministry receives proposals, e.g. to limit the percentage of the budget that a healthcare entity allocates to remuneration.

The Minister of Health participated in the meeting of the Supreme Medical Council on Friday in Warsaw. Conversations with doctors, including: with the participation of deputy ministers of health and the National Health Fund, they concerned, among others, plans of the Ministry of Health to reform the hospital system, changes to the Act on minimum wages in health care and contracts.

Sobierańska-Grenda, during the summary of the NRL meeting, confirmed that there are currently no plans to change medical contracts. She added that the Ministry of Health is considering introducing corrections to the highest salaries in the valuation of benefits.

These are the proposals presented at the end of October at a meeting of the presidium of the Tripartite Team for Health Protection.

One of them is to determine the maximum remuneration for persons providing benefits under a civil law contract, i.e. the so-called contract. Currently, the regulations do not specify such a maximum. According to the proposal, it would be approximately 40 thousand. PLN gross per month per full-time position. It would be possible to increase the hourly rate in exceptional situations – however, the maximum salary could not be higher than PLN 48,000. PLN gross per month per full-time position. Currently, medical contracts include, among others: settlement of remuneration as a percentage of the amount transferred by the National Health Fund for the provision of a given service.

When asked at a press briefing whether the Ministry of Health had abandoned the idea of ​​introducing maximum remuneration in contract agreements, the Minister of Health said that the proposals of various parties were being discussed within the tripartite team for health protection and they were not final. She noted that the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tarification (AOTMiT) estimated the upper limit of doctors' remuneration, which sparked a number of discussions.

Sobierańska-Grenda emphasized that the Ministry of Health has begun to receive various solutions that do not require the introduction of an upper salary limit, but, for example, concern limiting the percentage of the budget that a healthcare entity allocates to salaries. – Today, I think it is difficult to say which solution will be chosen – she said.

When asked about the ban on working in the private sector for doctors working in the public system, she emphasized that this was a demand from the trade union. Sobierańska-Grenda said that there is a need to analyze whether the system is ready for such a solution due to the number of people in medical professions.

The Minister of Health noted that the ministry's proposal, as part of the work of the tripartite team, is to change the indexation index in the Act on the Minimum Wage for Medical Employees and to postpone the implementation date of subsequent increases by half a year, i.e. to enter into force in January, and not as currently – in July.

NRL president Łukasz Jankowski summed up that the talks were not easy, but they ended with an optimistic message. – We are very happy with the declaration of joint work (…) and that it has finally been said that it is not doctors who are the problem in the health care system, but the system itself requires changes – he said.

He noted that he was pleased with the declaration of the Minister of Health to reverse the negative effects of the so-called cash jump.

These are the changes from 2023, i.e. the transfer of financing from the state budget to the National Health Fund, among others. emergency medical services and free medicines.

Sobierańska-Grenda emphasized that restoring financing from the state budget for some tasks will require talks with the Ministry of Finance. She informed that it is necessary to estimate how much the procedures whose financing was transferred to the National Health Fund cost.

The topics also included the issue of introducing the so-called no fault regarding criminal provisions to which medics are subject in the event of damage to a patient's health. This week, the President of the Supreme Medical Council, Łukasz Jankowski, requested a meeting with President Karol Nawrocki and Prime Minister Donald Tusk “in the face of growing threats to the functioning of the health care system in Poland and the lack of possibility of dialogue with the Ministry of Health.”

President Karol Nawrocki met with the president of the NRL on Wednesday. (PAP)

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