Małgorzata Solecka: Hospitals will get more money for pay rises, but ...

PLN 350 million - this is the amount to go to hospitals, mainly poviat ones, in connection with signals that entities lack money to pay increases resulting from the act on minimum wages. Employees should receive higher salaries on Wednesday, August 10, but some institutions plan to pay for July in two installments: on August 10 - the "old" amount, in the second half of the month - compensation.

On Tuesday, AOTMiT organized an extraordinary press conference, during which a recovery plan was presented, i.e. decisions that are to help settle liabilities towards employees. The most important message that was sent to the media can be summarized as follows: we can see that the problem is there, but at the same time it is not, because - as the vice-president of the National Health Fund Bernard Waśko said - "we have signed about 460 annexes, or about 80 percent. all entities ". The entities, i.e. hospitals, because the NFZ and AOTMiT did not refer to the clinic's situation at all on Tuesday. Even district hospitals, which announce the loudest that they are "not enough" (although Minister Adam Niedzielski a few days ago assured that "it should be enough"), 75 percent. signed annexes.

It is worth noting that the signature on the annex does not mean that the director confirms sufficient funds. The directors are signing annexes, because they have to pay the increases anyway, and without additional money, the institutions are in danger of becoming financially collapsed. Some of them compare the additions to the drip with a pain reliever - it does not solve the problem, but you suffer less.

What does the Fund offer to hospitals today? Although the estimates of local government officials and managers say that there is a minimum gap of one billion, the payer puts PLN 350 million on the table, which will, on the one hand, increase the unit of account in a lump sum to PLN 1.62, which will add about PLN 235 million for the second half of the year. In poviat hospitals (i.e. level I and II), the National Health Fund will apply correction factors increasing funding by an additional 2 percent. - In total, this additional amount of higher financing for the second half of the year will amount to PLN 350 million - said Waśko.

The problem is that more money will be paid out by the National Health Fund only from August, and the condition for using this pool is to be a sufficiently high level of contract performance. Additional money for salary increases is not planned for POZ and AOS clinics.

The pay rise bill is being implemented without any surprises: experts, local government officials, trade unions and opposition MPs have warned against chaos - and there is chaos. One could endlessly recall the appeals and questions of, for example, MP Elżbieta Gelert, who asked for an explanation of the mechanisms for financing the raises and an indication of the sources of the money's origin - and invariably heard that everything is ready, and if it is not, it will be on time.

To say it is not is to say nothing.