The counties want reform, but the whole system

This week, the General Assembly of the Association of Polish Poviats is meeting. It is known that one of the most important topics on the agenda will be changes designed by the Ministry of Health and affecting hospitals run by local governments. The more so because the revised bill on the modernization of hospitals, which the ministry presented in May after about 2,000 comments had been received in the first consultations, has just received an unequivocally negative assessment of the local government side of the Joint Government and Local Government Commission.

Law and Justice MPs, who constitute the lion's share of the team for poviat hospitals, gave the local government officials and managers of these institutions a chance to formulate their reservations. For nearly two hours, it was mainly the social side that spoke, and the meaning of the message was simple: so what if the ministry consults and conducts a dialogue, since the proposals it puts on the table after these consultations and talks differ from the original version only in details. The starost of Poznań, Jan Grabkowski, who represents ZPP in KWRziS, said that in the revised version - which local government officials also reject - the amendments concern a few minor issues, while the merits remain unchanged. - In our opinion, introducing new entities, new jobs, supervisors, directors and presidents of hospitals misses the point. This law will not improve hospitality. What can improve it? A comprehensive view of the entire system. Let's make a round table with experts on this subject - he said.

ZPP has an offer that it made public on Tuesday. Local government officials propose transforming their hospitals into Local Health Centers (such a concept appeared in 2018 during the debate "Together for health", organized by the then minister Łukasz Szumowski). - Currently, local governments have limited possibilities of action in the implementation of tasks in the broadly understood public health. Even if such tasks are carried out, they often constitute a de facto response to the needs that should be satisfied by other stakeholders of the health care system - we read in the materials that ZPP sent to the media.

The union proposes to introduce a Poviat Healthcare System based on the poviat self-government. It would cover all aspects - from promotion and prevention, through the provision of primary health care (integrated outpatient care), basic hospital protection, community psychological and psychiatric care as well as long-term care, to the declaration of deaths at home.