In the years 2016-2021, the waiting time for organ transplantation in Poland was systematically increasing - the maximum time increased from four to even twelve years - the representative of the Supreme Audit Office informed members of the Health Committee, presenting the main conclusions of the report.
Discussion on the state of transplantation at the meeting of the Health Committee
Published June 10, 2022 11:26
Poland ranks third in terms of the number of transplants from the end in Europe, ahead of Greece and Romania.
Marcin Stolarczyk, acting On Wednesday, the director of the Health Department of the Supreme Chamber of Control (NIK) presented the results of the inspection carried out in 2021. The auditors took a closer look at the Ministry of Health, the "Poltransplant" Organizational and Coordination Center for Transplantation, provincial branches of the National Health Fund and medical entities in which transplantation centers are run.
Conclusions? - The National Program for the Development of Transplantation Medicine 2011-2021 was changed five times, and its implementation was extended until December 2022. Outlays were increased from PLN 450 million to PLN 620 million. NIK negatively assessed the implementation of four out of eight program objectives - said Marcin Stolarczyk.
The representative of the Supreme Audit Office emphasized that for six years it was not possible to develop an epidemiological assessment of the actual needs in the field of transplantation of individual organs. - In 2017, this point was removed from the program at all - reminded the representative of the Supreme Audit Office.
The program initially assumed an increase in the number of organ transplants from deceased donors by at least 100%, and kidney transplants from living donors by at least 500%. against the data from 2009. - These goals have also not been achieved. By 2019, the number of organ transplants from deceased donors had increased by just 40% and the number of kidney transplants from living donors by 126%. - reported director Stolarczyk.
- Moreover, the audit findings show that in the years 2016-2021 the waiting time for an organ transplant was gradually increasing. In 2016, record holders waited for transplantation for over four years, while in 2020 even twelve years - reported Marcin Stolarczyk.
In the years 2016-2020, the donation rate also gradually decreased (the number of real donors per million inhabitants, from 14.1 in 2018 - 13, in 2020 - 10.2.
The minister of health, in addition, for an indefinite period of time suspended work on the draft law on transplantation, which began in the health ministry in 2017. - Therefore, no changes were made that could contribute to the improvement of the organization and functioning of the transplantation system in Poland - he concluded.
In the discussion on the report, the ministry was represented by Agnieszka Beniuk-Patoła, deputy director of the Department of Treatment. She stated that the Minister of Health could not stop work on the transplant law because he had not started it at all. She also emphasized that the Supreme Audit Office did not notice that despite the decrease in the number of donors, the percentage of multi-organ donations increased - from 73%. up to 84 percent - Increasing expenditures meant that - despite the pandemic - the number of heart transplants in Poland in 2021 was 200, while in 2020 - 145. In 2020, 51 lung transplants were performed in Poland, while in 2021 already 68 - informed Agnieszka Beniuk-Patoła, emphasizing that the pandemic is a key factor, because in the last two years the health care system, especially anesthesiology and intensive care units, which are key to the organ transplant process, has switched to crisis mode.
- Poland ranks third from the end in terms of the number of transplants carried out in Europe. We are only ahead of Romania and Greece. This is the objective, sad truth. Although you can of course say that NIK is mean, and the Ministry of Health is good - said Rajmund Miller (KO). Jerzy Hardie-Douglas emphasized that Spain, despite the pandemic, did not notice the breakdown of the transplant system, which is considered to be one of the best in Europe.
