- This topic should be addressed outside of emotions of a typically political nature. There is nothing wrong with limiting the operation of departments that consume financial resources while not being used properly. This is a waste of the potential of the medical staff. However, it is worthwhile to carry out such reforms gently and in consultation with the local community," admits Michal Bulsa, president of the Regional Medical Council in Szczecin. At the next session of the Sejm, parliamentarians will deal with topics in the health care system, among others. The bill will open the possibility of consolidating or liquidating loss-making departments if necessary. In the discourse, the most widely commented issue is the potential liquidation of labor wards when they receive fewer than 400 deliveries per year.
OIL in Szczecin: Future of delivery rooms depends on MPs' decisions
Published Nov. 6, 2024 11:11
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According to the explanatory memorandum to the draft amendment to the law on publicly funded health care services and certain other laws, the Ministry of Health will define the criteria for obstetric-gynecological profiles in a regulation. It has been acknowledged that consolidations of medical facilities are possible when less than 400 births per year are received in a given unit. However, the Health Ministry has not indicated that such facilities will be automatically extinguished, but that this is a possibility. At the same time, in an interview, Health Minister Izabela Leszczyna acknowledged that it is not possible to close delivery units when another unit where it is possible to receive deliveries is 100 kilometers away. It was also assured that a woman will be able to count on specialized assistance, such as being taken to the delivery room by ambulance.
- The issue raises emotions, which is obvious. However, in this case, the whole issue should be looked at rationally. Each closure of a maternity ward should be approached individually, and as a medical self-government we will be watching closely the decisions of the Ministry of Health on this issue. For on the one hand, we can see that maintaining such a large number of maternity wards is irrational if we assume that the number of births will decrease. However, we cannot treat the situation automatically and close all the wards that qualify for the determinants adopted by the Health Ministry," says Michal Bulsa, president of the Regional Medical Council in Szczecin.
Analyzing the situation in 2023, it can be seen that there are many maternity wards that receive two or three hundred births per year. Such a situation means that maternity wards in such hospitals have no economic and rational justification.
- From the point of view of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, we see that, for example, the delivery rooms in Nowogard or Bialogard have a low number of deliveries, while requiring full ongoing readiness, which is a real waste of medical staff potential. However, it would be difficult to agree with the closure of a delivery room in Swinoujscie, which is not only the largest regional seaside resort, but also a specifically located place. Here, the delivery room is simply needed to protect patients in case, for example, the tunnel is closed for technical reasons," says Michal Bulsa.
This topic requires rational discussion. The possibility of reducing wards should not be closed, because their reduction does not have to reflect negatively on patients at all - but everything must be consulted with the local community and the medical community, and the function of coordinating the process of change and consultation should be assumed by provincial consultants in gynecology and obstetrics.
