The government adopted the National Reform Program (NRP) for the years 2022/2023, a comprehensive document that indicates the directions of activities under the main strategic economic and social challenges of Poland in the perspective of the year. It assumes the adoption of key health laws in the third quarter of 2022, which, however, are very controversial.
There is a National Reform Program. In it, key health laws
Published April 28, 2022 08:39
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The National Reform Program provides, inter alia, improving healthcare and providing the system with sufficient resources. The authors admit that the health care system is underfunded, which negatively affects its functioning, investment decisions and resource allocation. - It seems justified to use resources more efficiently in the hospital sector, including the performance of some medical procedures in the field of, inter alia, diagnostics, specialist medical care and rehabilitation in outpatient care, outside the hospital, which will result in lowering their costs - we read in it.
The National Reform Program is, or rather should be, coupled with the National Reconstruction Plan - the problem is, however, that there is no money from the KPO, because Poland has not ended the dispute with the European Union over self-government, and possible decisions on this matter that would at least help to push us in the right direction, blocks the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro.
Looking at the NRP, the key will be the third quarter of 2022, when the government plans to enter into force:
- the Act on the modernization and improvement of the efficiency of hospitality.
- orders of the President of the National Health Fund (NFZ) on strengthening primary health care and coordinated care, and then financial regulations (including changes in contracts), allowing for the implementation of changes throughout the country.
- the Act on the National Oncological Network establishing the rules for the functioning of the network by introducing a new structure and a new model of cancer care management in Poland.
- Acts on quality in healthcare and patient safety along with the necessary executive regulations.
In the first quarter of 2023, the regulation on the list of Voivodeship Monitoring Centers for the oncological network would enter into force.
Looking only through the prism of the bills that are planned to be "passed" in the coming months, it is worth noting that not one of the three has yet been approved by the government. The Act on the National Oncological Network seems to be the closest to this. Draft laws on quality and on hospitality are stuck at the stage of processing comments submitted during consultations (hospitality) or political, intra-governmental disputes (the quality act). The fate of both seems to be at least unexamined: the law on quality is blocked by Zbigniew Ziobro, who does not want to agree to the no fault system, even in a very limited form. The proposal to release doctors or medical personnel from criminal liability for a reported medical error is much too much for a minister who, at the same time, is forcing the Sejm to tighten penalties in an article of the Penal Code, from which the prosecutor's offices make accusations when they recognize that the patient's death was due to medical worker error.
The Hospitality Act is also questionable: a large number of Law and Justice MPs have serious doubts about this project and the proposal of the Ministry of Health, they also point out that in the event of overlapping crises (pandemic, refugees), the implementation of new solutions may lead to problems. There is also the issue of the political calendar: elections will be held in 2023, and the reform of hospitality must lead to major changes in the structure of institutions.
