Minister Sobierańska-Grenda's first speech to the Health Committee - on reforms and challenges

The meeting, which lasted more than three hours, was decidedly dominated by MPs' questions - there was not much space left for the social side to speak. Hardly surprising, Jolanta Sobieranska-Grenda has been in charge of the ministry for two months and this was her first meeting with the Health Committee.

There is no doubt that the most important item on the short list of priorities is to be the transformation of hospitals. Jolanta Sobieranska-Grenda assured that she will personally oversee the changes, serving as needed with her own experience. At the same time, she stressed that the law, which was passed by the parliament and signed by the president, is an invitation to the process of change and its important asset is voluntary. Those who submit to the repair processes will be able to count on support: a billion zlotys is to be set aside in the Medical Fund to support investments for transformation. Jolanta Sobieranska-Grenda also mentioned a debt relief mechanism (the ministry promised long-term loans that would be successively written off as the implementation of the recovery plan progresses), but stipulated that talks are underway between BGK and the Ministry of Finance on this issue, and there are no concrete agreements as of yet.

In the context of transformations, however, MPs asked about specifics - for example, what stage is reached in the work on special solutions for delivery rooms in disadvantaged areas (wards with a low number of births, but which are the only protection for residents of large areas, symbolized by the maternity ward in Lesko) or the issue of valuations, plunging primarily county hospitals. Janusz Cieszynski pointed out that with the long list of undervalued procedures, there are at the other extreme such specialized procedures, the performance of which allows hospitals to compensate for losses in other departments.

In the context of finances, there were also questions about the Medical Fund. The MPs wanted to know what the CBA audit ended up with, which was the reason for the cancellation of the competition for investments in oncology (PLN 3 billion), and when the MZ will transfer to the FM the PLN 4 billion that Izabela Leszczyna borrowed in the spring - transferring funds to the NFZ. A question was also raised as to how the Ministry wants to ensure greater liquidity of flows in the Medical Fund, which, according to MPs, should serve patients to a greater extent than it currently does, for example raising funds for extremely expensive therapies.

What else was of interest to MPs?

- Implementation of the law on minimum wages in health care (and possible amendments to this law),

- funding for psychiatry and the continued fate of mental health centers (and whether the pilot, which has been ongoing since 2018, will once again be extended),

- The MZ's plans to restrict alcohol sales (and its willingness to support projects submitted on this issue, among others by the Left),

- The future of the plan for rare diseases,

- Possible changes to the Hospitality Law (with the abandonment of the voluntary principle),

- Implementation of promises made by the previous management of the Ministry of Health (e.g., on reimbursement automation),

- plans related to the development of medical personnel, estimates of personnel resources, especially in the medical and nursing professions (along with the issue of pre- and postgraduate training).