Is this the end of small health care clinics?

After the conference of the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariffs, one conclusion comes to mind - although there was money for hospitals, there was not enough money for family medicine specialists. There were not enough funds to treat millions of Poles, especially from small towns. From the moment when the AOTMiT recommendation in the field of financing health care services appeared, where the second variant of the valuation was adopted, drastically lowering the financing for POZ, committing many substantive errors, without consulting the community about their needs and possibilities, and despite the appeal of family doctors, including the College of Family Physicians in Poland and the Polish Society of Family Medicine, the pricing has not changed.

“We conducted a survey among the counseling centers belonging to the Zielonogórskie Agreement Federation. Almost 40 percent When comparing the costs of June and July regarding salaries, but also other costs resulting from galloping inflation, the clinic faces the risk of closing the clinic. Who will look in the eyes of patients and tell them that they just ran out of money? It is the directors of medical facilities that are accused of mismanagement, but I wonder how to name the lack of an appropriate financing system that will ensure equal access for all Poles, especially to primary health care? " - asks Jacek Krajewski, president of the Zielona Góra Agreement.

It is difficult to understand the position of AOTMiT, the more so because for many years there has been talk of transferring care to POZ, which was to become the foundation of the entire system and ensure its stability - reminds FPZ. After all, a number of preventive programs have been created for this purpose, additional tests are introduced from 1 July, and soon a wider range of coordinated care is introduced, while at the same time doctors are deprived of the possibility of providing these services. The problem does not arise from the lack of proper management of institutions, but in the face of dramatically increasing inflation and staff shortages, it is difficult to reconcile so many factors. How to explain to the counseling staff that there are no funds for them, because ... inflation does not apply to them? Above all, however, the lack of funds for the clinic is the lack of funds for patients.

“Patients are becoming more aware, follow media reports, and understand that they lack the resources to ensure their fundamental right to equal and decent healthcare. My patients from a small town ask if they are at risk of losing access to their family doctor. In the face of the position of AOTMiT and the Ministry of Health, which believe that POZ does not deserve funding, it is difficult for me to look patients in the eye and assure them not to worry. We don't know what will happen. We have contact with doctors from all over Poland, they are afraid, but most of all the patients are afraid. It is difficult to understand that with the simultaneous imposition of more and more duties, there is a lack of funds to ensure the efficient functioning of POZ "- adds Tomasz Zieliński, family medicine specialist, vice-president of the Zielona Góra Agreement Federation.

It is difficult to find logic in managing the health care budget, when on the one hand, emphasis is placed on care within POZ, and on the other hand, POZ is deprived of the possibility of no longer developing, but simply functioning. Who will be responsible for closing small clinics? Who will explain to Poles from small towns that they are inferior people and there is no money for them?

Source: Zielona Góra Agreement