County hospitals sound the alarm: abolition of the correction factor will "put" many hospitals out of business

On Thursday morning, the board of OZPSP, a few hours before the government's "Safe Patient" summit, told reporters that district hospitals will come up with their own proposals for changes in the health care system, because those proposals being pushed or presented by the government side lead nowhere. Chairman Waldemar Malinowski stressed, however, that the health ministry's plans for spending cuts, revealed Monday, are changing the situation and becoming one of the main topics of discussion (although assurances have been given from the government side, including during the summit, that these are not plans but proposals, which it is unclear whether they will be implemented). - The savings proposals prepared by the ministry are unacceptable to us," said Waldemar Malinowski. In his opinion, the elimination of the correction coefficient, which was supposed to compensate district hospitals for under-valuations and inadequate changes to the tariffs of services in relation to the cost of the increases, will "put" many hospitals to bed, and an additional problem will be the change in valuations of hitherto well-funded services - for example, diagnostic imaging. Malinowski recalled that these valuations have risen in tandem with wage increases - if they are reduced, hospital revenues will fall and costs in the form of workers' salaries will remain. - Hospitals will begin to fail," predicts the OZPSP president.

Directors of district hospitals have been tearing at politicians for focusing on gamesmanship, for the "battle of the tops" between the government and the Presidential Palace. Politicians, in their view, prevent the National Health Fund from strategically managing the system, which generates and magnifies instability. At the moment, said Waldemar Malinowski, one of the key problems for district hospitals is the long delays in payment by the Fund for unlimited services. Because of this, some of the facilities have to postpone scheduled procedures until the following year. And hospitals, in a situation where the patient's life is not in danger, decide to take such a step. They have no choice, because they are already losing liquidity, which is also felt by suppliers, who fear not only a worsening of liquidity problems, but even a complete loss of hospitals' ability to regulate their obligations. And although the National Health Fund - which also resounded at the government summit - is settling liabilities, as Waldemar Malinowski said, this is happening with such delays that hospitals are running into more and more problems. - The Finance Minister knew about the problem as early as April, and we also warned, but no action was taken, the head of the county hospital employers' organization said.