Physician in the labor market 2020 - 2024

During the meeting, the results of a survey conducted on the aforementioned topic among doctors were presented, as well as the demands of the OZZL in connection with the accusations appearing in public that doctors are to blame for the bad situation in the finances of the health care system.

The key findings of the survey conducted by OZZL, in cooperation with Practical Medicine, clearly indicate that as many as the surveyed 60 percent of doctors currently work in no more than two places. As of 2022, there is no significant change in the number of places doctors are employed. For physicians, working in public facilities has very different advantages than working in the private sector. As many as 62 percent of respondents indicated that the key advantage of public facilities is the opportunity to treat patients better, as well as the prospect of professional development (51 percent of indications). Significantly, the sense of being able to treat the patient better in public health care increased from 45 percent in 2020 to 62 percent of indications in 2024.

Doctors employed in private facilities will appreciate the level of pay, work organization. This confirms OZZL's observation that a doctor employed on a contract basis is perceived as if he or she is an inferior category.

In general, regardless of where they are employed, when asked what bothers them most about their work, doctors ranked inadequate pay and work organization first. Inadequate remuneration bothers as many as 68 percent of contracted physicians surveyed. The salary outlook is assessed differently by contracted physicians, among whom salary is only 33 percent of the indications.

As a reminder: currently, the statutory salary stipulated for a specialist doctor employed on a one-time contract in a public institution is PLN 65 per hour gross, or about PLN 46 net. The monthly salary, with 160 hours of work for the above-mentioned specialist, is about PLN 10,375 gross and PLN 7,400 net.

Yes, there are doctors who earn a great deal. These are especially contract doctors and doctors with high surgical qualifications. Nevertheless, the median salary of doctors, as reported by AOTMiT, is PLN 17,000.

It is hurtful to divert attention from the lack of reform, build social tension and blame medics for budget holes in the system, because it is not we doctors, but the Ministry of Health that sets the rules. Unfortunately, years of successive ideas about the health care system in Poland have diversified the forms of remuneration, the rates of doctors and reduced them to the level of those guilty of the collapse of health care finances.

Chairwoman of the National Board of OZZL, Grazyna Cebula-Kubat emphasizes: "It is not us doctors who created this system, it is not us who have led to the pathology that values one procedure and treats another in a "lowly" way. It's not our fault that a doctor employed under a contract of employment is treated as if he were an inferior category of medic.

Doctors demand the creation of real reforms that will stop reducing doctors to an object of discussion about money. A doctor is for treating and is to earn fairly, adequate to his skills, knowledge and responsibility, and be rewarded for the results of his work. The doctor must have conditions for calm and professional treatment. The demands of the OZZL regarding salaries of doctors are unchanged: 3 x the national average for a specialist doctor employed in a public entity under a contract of employment, on a one-time basis, but we are now adding another demand to them. We expect the Ministry of Health to present a vision of a system in which mutual trust and respect will be rebuilt, and we will finally have time for the patient to be treated as a partner, instead of explaining away the system's problems for the sake of distraction.

The health care system today cannot afford to continue losing specialists who work full-time in public hospitals, because without them public health care will cease to exist.

compiled based on a press release from the National Board of OZZL