Earnings: what do doctors really think?

The full results of the survey and the conclusions drawn from the survey devoted to assessing doctors' employment conditions, conducted in November on mp.pl, will be presented at the end of the month, but already on Tuesday OZZL in a press release informed about the most important - in the context of the current discussions - conclusion. Importantly, doctors who reject the idea of a salary cap do not change their position no matter how high the ceiling of a multiple of the national average would come into play.

This is the third time the OZZL survey on doctors' working conditions is being repeated - the previous ones were conducted in 2020 and 2022. At the moment, as the trade union points out, it is notable that although realities are changing, the vast majority of doctors (nearly 75 percent) still work in more than one workplace. No change in this regard from the previous two editions.

Also unchanged, at least significantly, are the advantages of the private and public sectors as indicated by physicians (regardless of the form of employment). In the private sector, the biggest advantage is salary, 84 percent of survey participants indicate. Highly rated in private health care are work organization (61 percent) and attitude toward the employee (41 percent). On the other hand, only 15 percent of those surveyed believe that in private facilities there are better opportunities to treat patients and 8 percent see career prospects.

The most important advantages of public health care are the ability to treat patients better (62 percent) and professional development (51 percent). It is noteworthy that while the survey results do not show significant changes in many areas, when it comes to opportunities to treat patients better, the percentage of responses rose from 45 percent to 62 percent.

The main reason why doctors work in multiple locations is salaries. At the same time, the need to work in multiple locations is what they most often point to as a factor that bothers them. This issue is particularly important for contracted physicians. Doctors, working under contracts, have a better opinion of salaries in the public sector. This is due, unfortunately, to the Minimum Wage Law, which sets minimum salaries for full-time specialists at 65 PLN / hour gross and 46 PLN / hour net. With 160 hours of work, this gives a base salary of PLN 10,375 gross and PLN 7400 net. - These results unequivocally confirm that doctors employed on employment contracts are in the worst pay situation, and that the demands of doctors employed in public institutions cannot be reduced to money alone," stresses Grazyna Cebula-Kubat, chairwoman of the National Board of the All-Polish Physicians' Trade Union.

- The group of doctors is very fragmented, so a survey showing generally what doctors claim needs to be deepened and look at the declarations of individual segments of this group, because sometimes what is true for specialists is not so for residents. The same is true in the context of different forms of employment," recalls Anna Golębicka, an economist working with the OZZL.