They believed the minister - current comment (regarding USD in Prokocim)

When on December 20 last year the representatives of HRM met with the minister, deputy minister and president of the NFZ at the headquarters of the Ministry of Health, two topics were discussed. The first one is the amount of the indicator that determines the minimum basic salary for a specialist doctor. It currently amounts to 1.31 of the "average wage in the economy for the previous year". For years, HRM has been striving for it to be around 3 "national averages", but with a proposal for a compromise and consent (as appealed by the Minister of Health), HRM agreed that this year (from July 2022) this indicator should be 1, 7 "national average", that is, at least a little more than what specialist doctors obtained on the occasion of the "Szumowski raise" in 2018 (then their minimum salary = PLN 6,750 was equal to approx. 1.6 "national average for the previous year").
The second topic was the hospital in Prokocim, where over 70 doctors were dismissed from their jobs. We indicated that the financial situation of the hospital is bad, which results from the great underestimation of the services provided by this hospital. As a result, (subsequent) hospital management are forced to make drastic savings, mainly in wages and the number of staff, which results in a shortage of staff and fosters errors that may pose a threat to the health and life of young patients. The HRM proposed to increase the valuation of benefits immediately by 50% - for immediate rescue of the situation, and then to review individual procedures and evaluate them rationally, taking into account the costs of work of doctors and other hospital staff.
The minister, deputy minister and president of the Nfz approached both of our demands (an increase in the minimum wage ratio and an increase in the valuation of benefits provided by USD) with undisguised disregard. They could not understand why we care about the minimum wage rate, since - in their opinion - doctors already earn very well today and can practically earn as much in the hospital as they want (which is to result from the shortage of doctors and the compulsion of employing them by management). They also did not share our opinion that USD in Krakow is in a bad financial condition, because - as they claimed - its finances have improved significantly in recent years and - de facto - there is no need to increase the valuation of benefits. Therefore - in the opinion of the minister, deputy minister and president of the National Health Fund, if the director of the hospital in Prokocim does not want to give appropriate increases to doctors (until they quit their job, their base salaries amounted to the statutory minimum wage = 1.31 of the "national average"), it results only the inability of the director to manage the hospital and it is the director who has to be "pressed", not the minister.
Therefore, if currently more than 20 anaesthesiologists from the University Children's Hospital in Krakow Prokocim have not withdrawn their terminations and have not come to work on February 1, it should be assumed that they believed the Minister of Health that the financial situation of the hospital in Prokocim is very good and that doctors can the hospital to earn as much as they want. The only issue is the pressure on the principal.
Therefore, let us not be outraged (he writes mainly about patients, the media and representatives of the authorities) that anesthesiologists did as they did. They acted according to the principle in force in public health care in Poland: as much profit as pressure, and that wages in hospitals only increase from a strike (collective dismissal) to a strike. This is how it was planned by the rulers and this is how it works.
Krzysztof Bukiel - chairman of ZK OZZL