About service, business and mission

Last weekend, the head of PiS visited Lower Silesia and its capital. In Wrocław, he spoke, among other things, about the situation in health care. - We gave the health service a lot more money than before, because in nominal terms it is more than twice as much, although taking into account inflation, it is a bit less - he said. These words are in line with the statements of government officials about the rapidly growing public spending on health care. The problem is that there is no jump (apart from nominal amounts): in 2015, public spending on health was 4.5 percent. GDP (real GDP from the same year), in 2021 - a pandemic year, when the state budget incurred large expenses on tests, vaccinations, covid supplements and the operation of special hospitals) - 4.9%. GDP. In addition, the phrase "we have given" also misleads the public: the so-called Act 7% GDP (initially 6%) does not entail the activation of subsidies from the state budget, as provided for in the 2016-2017 projects and the accompanying regulatory impact assessments. Excluding expenditure on combating the pandemic, the act has been implemented from the beginning thanks to the growing volume of the health contribution and the N-2 methodology applied, relating health expenditure to GDP from two years ago.

Jarosław Kaczyński claims, however, that there is "a little less" money than twice as much as in 2015. "But I can't say, because I'd be dishonest, the troubles have been resolved." There are advances in some areas, such as cardiology and oncology, but there is still a long way to go to solve the problems, he said. It is difficult to say what the president considers "progress in certain areas" - perhaps it is about the implemented pilots of national oncology and cardiology networks, because it is difficult to talk about real progress, measured, for example, by earlier cancer detection. On the contrary. Because if we take as progress what has happened in Poland over the last dozen or so years (and to which he has put his hand as the Minister of Health, Prof. Zbigniew Religa), i.e. the rapid development of interventional cardiology, the president would have to admit that he was instrumental in contributing to this progress, the business dimension, beyond the obvious "mission".

- It is very difficult, as is the fight against developers. In order to solve the housing problem in Poland, it is necessary to break the advantage of developers. If you don't do this, you won't win. Here, too, it is necessary to break some very influential groups that want to treat health care as a business. Well, health care is not a business, and the work of a doctor should be very well rewarded, but it is not a business, it is a service, it is a mission - said Kaczyński.

Doctors have to wait to define what exactly means "very well paid". In the context of, for example, weekend statements regarding only health care problems, one can fear that the PiS president has his own definitions and points of reference, far from the generally accepted ones. In addition, he considers them only correct. - There are really no people in the world who are much smarter than me - he said in Oleśnica.