A large pool of money for health programs will go to local governments. New recruitments are starting

• According to Edyta Masłowska-Parafian, an expert on European funds, more and more local governments are effectively reaching out for EU funds to implement health programmes for their residents.
• In June of this year, competitions for health programs in six provinces will be announced. Support will range from PLN 5 million to even PLN 20 million per competition.
• According to Marek Wójcik, a health care expert at the Association of Polish Cities, another important source of funding for local government health programs are competitions organized by the National Health Fund.
• Another increasingly popular source of support for health prevention in municipalities and cities are participatory budgets.

As we have already reported, according to data from the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System (AOTMiT), after a period of stagnation, the number of preventive health policy programmes implemented by local governments is growing again.

The second piece of good news for the authorities of municipalities, cities, counties and provinces and their residents is the growing number of sources of external funding for such projects . Experts drew attention to various possibilities of supporting them during the debate "Prevention of infectious diseases in your region", which took place on 28 May this year as part of the project "Health Man Prevention".

In the current EU financial perspective 2021-2027, local governments are provided with funds from European funds, primarily within the framework of regional health programs . They are developed by the marshal's offices, then reviewed by AOTMiT and forwarded for implementation.

- said Edyta Masłowska-Parafian, expert in European funds, director of finance and operations at Łukasiewicz - ITECH Institute of Technology and Innovation during the debate.

She noted that in the current EU budget perspective, great emphasis was placed on financial support for health projects aimed at, among others, older people, but also on programmes aimed at eliminating risk factors for various diseases in the workplace.

- I am observing the competitions that are already being announced, and then the ranking lists of these recruitments. They prove that a great many local governments are applying for these funds and are successfully obtaining them . Local governments are, next to employers, their main beneficiaries - the expert pointed out.

She also recalled selected regional health programmes from the previous financial perspective, which proved to be very effective and are worth continuing/replacing in the current EU budget, including programmes concerning: prevention of lung diseases in oncology patients; prevention of tick-borne diseases and elimination of their effects; prevention of cancer and cardiology diseases; and mother and child care.

Director Edyta Masłowska-Parafian emphasized that competitions for large health programs in six provinces will be announced soon. - The allocation of funds will range from PLN 5 million to even PLN 20 million per competition , so these are really large funds - she pointed out.

In the first half of June, the competition will begin in the Podlaskie province. In the Lublin province, recruitment will be announced in the third quarter. Similarly in the Łódź province (including in the field of rehabilitation), as well as in the Świętokrzyskie and Warmian-Masurian provinces. In the West Pomeranian province, a competition is already underway as part of the Regional Health Program Spinal Pain

- enumerated Edyta Masłowska-Parfian.

She added that announcements of this year’s competitions for regional health programmes in the next six voivodeships will appear soon.

- Of course, there are also already prepared competition schedules for the first quarter of 2026 , among others for the Podkarpackie and Zachodniopomorskie voivodeships, including those for eliminating risk factors in the workplace - summed up Director Masłowska-Parafian.

In turn, Marek Wójcik, an expert in healthcare at the Association of Polish Cities, emphasised that another important source of funding for local government healthcare programmes are competitions for preventive measures organised by the National Health Fund (NFZ) .

- Right now is the perfect time to start preparing to participate in such competitions prepared by individual provincial branches of the National Health Fund. In the last few years, the deadline for submitting applications was September 1. We know that any day now, the National Health Fund will publish announcements about these competitions on its website - noted the representative of the Union of Polish Cities.

He recalled that the scope of such competitions currently covers only guaranteed services, i.e. those that are reimbursed to medical facilities by the National Health Fund on a daily basis.

- There are already local governments that have specialized in obtaining funds from this source to finance health programs for their residents. It is particularly beneficial for small local governments, because they can receive up to 80 percent of support for the implementation of a given health program - the expert pointed out.

He informed that local government health projects can be co-financed - depending on the scale of the undertaking and the size of the commune/city - with amounts ranging from PLN 1,000 or 2,000 to even several million zlotys.

- Considering the financial problems of many local governments, it is really worth reaching for such support from the National Health Fund. Another, increasingly popular source of support for health prevention are civic budgets. Let's not forget that right now many local governments are recruiting ideas from residents on how to use the civic budget - summed up Marek Wójcik.

All statements come from the debate "Prevention of infectious diseases in your region", which took place on May 28 this year as part of the project "Health Man Prevention". Below is the full video recording of the event:

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"Health Man Prevention" is an educational project implemented since 2013 , the aim of which is to draw attention to public health problems, both at the central and local level.

Through educational activities addressed to selected target groups - including local governments, employers, institutions and entities gathering people who, due to the specificity of their profession, are exposed to harmful risk factors - the project implementers draw attention to the benefits of investing in the prevention of infectious diseases in local communities and the workplace.

The substantive side of the project is being worked on by, among others, representatives of the medical world, provincial and district Sanitary and Epidemiological Stations, occupational medicine experts, experts on European funds and representatives of local governments and employers.