The difficult situation of the district hospital in Przeworsk

As reported by Portal Samorządowy in the article prepared by Karina Knorps-Tuszyńska "County hospitals in crisis. Insolvency and closure of facilities on the horizon", experts from the Association of Polish Counties Bernadeta Skóbel and Katarzyna Sekuła have prepared a report on the financial situation of county hospitals in 2024. It was created based on data from preliminary reports on the finances of entities performing medical activities in the public sector, which public hospitals are obliged to prepare and submit in the e-Health Center system. In the report, they recalled that county hospitals are mostly financed from the National Health Fund. Contracts with the National Health Fund are the main source of revenue, reaching an average of 93 percent of their net sales revenue. As a result, hospitals have very limited flexibility in managing their finances. Any delays in payments by the National Health Fund, reduction of the contract or introduction of unfavorable systemic changes can quickly lead to a deterioration of the financial situation of hospitals. Often, the only solution is to get into debt.

The difficult situation of district hospitals in Poland is confirmed by the numbers: the operating costs of the 219 district hospitals examined exceeded PLN 29.2 billion in 2024, of which the largest part was salaries (40.5 percent of all operating costs) and external services (30.6 percent). Revenues do not cover operating costs - the total net loss of the entities examined amounted to over PLN 772 million, and the loss from sales exceeded PLN 1.36 billion. Over 82 percent of hospitals reported a loss on core operations. 56 of the 219 hospitals examined have debts exceeding the value of their assets...