Waldemar Malinowski, president of OZPSP: Without a correction to the pay rise act, everything will collapse, including the National Health Fund

- We, as hospital directors, would like to avoid discussing the pay rises with the (medical – ed.) staff again. This is the state's responsibility, which the Sejm and members of parliament have taken upon themselves. We would like at least a little peace on this topic - said Waldemar Malinowski, president of the National Association of District Hospital Employers (OZPSP), in the podcast Rzecz o Zdrowiu.

As he added, the so-called "pay rise act" of 2022, which introduced a mechanism for indexing the minimum wages of healthcare workers, was needed because in fact, people in healthcare were earning little. However, at the moment, it is necessary to correct these regulations. - If there is no such correction and there is no other approach, it will not be the district hospitals, (but - ed.) everything will collapse, including the National Health Fund, because these pay rises will be even higher - said the president of the OZPSP.

"The algorithm is not working properly"

The annual increase in salaries for medical personnel means financial problems for district hospitals. Most of the revenues of such facilities are absorbed by personnel costs, and the mechanism for dividing the money for increases between hospitals is not clear.

- In 2022, the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System developed an algorithm based on which it divided the funds into increases. And we still do not know what this algorithm looks like, but at that time, large hospitals received large funds, even more than they needed, by 20-30 percent, and some district hospitals received nothing, PLN 0. If someone needs PLN 300,000 per month for increases and gets PLN 0, it means that the algorithm is not working properly. (…) Every year, large hospitals receive more and more funds, and we get a slight increase, which is not enough to cover these increases - explained Malinowski.

"Hospitals will start to fail"

OZPSP estimates that in order to cover the costs of this year's pay rises for medical personnel, a subsidy from the state budget to the National Health Fund in the amount of about PLN 9 billion is necessary. "We will not bend on this," announced Malinowski.

He added: - It is a paradox that money that is intended for treating people is transferred to pay increases. If the state has made such an obligation, the state should find this money.

The President of the OZPSP added that if these funds are not available, hospitals will begin to go bankrupt.