There is a bill on the modernization of hospitality

Project consultation will take 30 days.

- We are launching a fundamental reform of Polish hospitality. We are submitting a draft law for consultation, which will define the rules for the modernization and development of hospitality, the minister informed at a press conference organized in CZD, i.e. one of the institutes subordinate to the minister, which is, incidentally, struggling with a considerable debt.

The draft - as the minister explained - contains regulations which, on the one hand, will ensure better financial condition for hospitals, and, on the other hand, guarantee high-quality services for patients.

Adam Niedzielski explained that the pandemic highlighted the need to introduce a coordination mechanism in healthcare. According to Niedzielski, the minister of health must have instruments to overcome the reluctance to cooperate on the part of hospitals or founding bodies - the head of the health ministry referred (without specifics) to situations in which some hospitals and local governments did not want to cooperate in the creation of covid beds in previous waves of the pandemic.

In the minister's opinion, the reform is necessary because the ownership supervision over the hospitals leaves much to be desired. - We want to propose the establishment of the Hospital Development Agency - he announced. The agency is to deal with, inter alia, distribution of European funds, but it will also help hospitals in a difficult financial situation to carry out the restructuring process.

The law will require a state examination for hospital managers. It is also supposed to redefine the rules of functioning of the hospital network. - The changes will take into account the fact that we will withdraw from lump-sum financing, because the financial strength of the state allows for full responsibility for contract values ​​- explained the minister.

Deputy health minister Sławomir Gadomski reminded that hospitals currently have approx. PLN 20 billion in liabilities, including debt due at the level of PLN 2.1 billion. The aim of the reform is also to support the hospital sector in reducing its debt, and the Hospital Development Agency is to protect the facilities against such debts as we know from the past - so that the effect is not temporary but permanent. The state intends to allocate approximately PLN 3 billion over five years to support hospitals that will undergo restructuring and meet the criteria. "These are funds that no hospital will receive for free," he pointed out.

Gadomski reminded that due debt is a problem only in some hospitals. Twenty outlets generate half of the debt due. 80 percent of all outstanding debts - about seventy, or 13 percent. all hospitals.

What will be the timetable for implementing the reform, and what is connected with it - the new principles of the hospital network? - According to our estimates, the responsible deployment of the network cannot take place earlier than 2023 - he said. As he explained, the qualification to the network itself takes place three months before the start of the network operation. - I hope that the act will be passed in the first half of 2022 and it will give time for several months to prepare for changes - he said

The minister was also asked about the university children's hospital in Kraków-Prokocim, where over a hundred specialist doctors may leave their jobs, and the situation in specialist pediatric hospitals, whose employees point out a significant underestimation of pediatric procedures. Niedzielski emphasized that pediatrics was withdrawn from the lump sum this year, and all above-limit pediatric procedures are and will be paid from the Medical Fund. It also stated that the retarification of benefits is an ongoing process. However, he did not answer the question on the prospects of increasing the pricing of pediatric services.