Family doctors announce a fight to repeal the regulation: Non-market and harmful

A week ago, the FPZ announced that it was withdrawing its representatives from the ministerial team for changes in the POZ. The decision, as the representatives of family doctors explained during the Wednesday press conference, was caused by introducing changes to the primary health care without consulting the team. The immediate cause was the announcement of two regulations: introducing the obligation to conduct personal examinations of people over 60 years of age infected with coronavirus and the most recent one, concerning the conclusion of contracts with the National Health Fund.

The Zielona Góra Agreement consistently criticizes the decision of the Minister of Health, which - according to doctors - excessively and unreasonably privileges older patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 over the rest of the population. - The 48 hours provided for in the regulation strongly influences our work, and above all limits the availability to us for non-infectious patients or patients with chronic diseases - said Jacek Krajewski, president of the Zielona Góra Agreement Federation. - Already with this regulation, an orange light turned on, if we are talking about decisions and substantive nature as well as knowledge of the realities of POZ. And the regulation on amending the general terms and conditions of contracts, about which - as with the previous ones - we learned not from the minister, but secretly in the backstage, caused our faith that the team for changes in POZ really is the team that is to introduce these changes, give opinions or evaluate - he stated.

The president of the Zielonogórski Agreement reminded that when Adam Niedzielski appointed the team, it was stated in the ordinance that his task would be to prepare the concept of changes in the operation of POZ. - If we have such a serious challenge as a pandemic, if we are to carry out changes in POZ and we are an auxiliary body of the minister, then all activities related to projects in POZ should be assessed by this team, or at least have knowledge about the activities performed - he explained. - Unfortunately, the recent ministerial ordinance or the ordinance of the National Health Fund showed that regulations were introduced that were in no way seriously discussed with the team.

The next step of the minister of health, i.e. the regulation on the amendment of the General Terms and Conditions (GTC) (entered into force on February 9), which stipulate that the changes to the orders of the President of the National Health Fund will automatically bind POZ service providers without the need to annex their contracts with the consent of both parties, as doctors say, he left them no choice. They announce legal steps that they hope will lead to the repeal of the law. - This regulation does not only apply to primary health care. It introduces a huge imbalance in terms of the parties to the contract. There is no partnership there. As the National Health Fund later wishes, this is how the agreement will then be formulated. We cannot agree to such actions. We are preparing legal steps that may lead to the repeal of this act - said Krajewski.