Mateusz Morawiecki, the Prime Minister of Poland, has acknowledged the resignation of Health Minister Adam Niedzielski and has extended an offer to MP Katarzyna Sójka to assume the vital role.
On Tuesday afternoon, Morawiecki declared, “I have come to the decision to accept the resignation tendered by Health Minister Adam Niedzielski.”
Furthermore, the Prime Minister revealed that concurrently, he has chosen to extend the position to MP Katarzyna Sójka, who is not only a parliamentarian but also holds a medical background. Sójka is a part of the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party’s parliamentary caucus.
This development follows a recent incident wherein a Polish doctor voiced a demand for an apology from the health minister, along with a charitable donation to a hospice organization, for the alleged dissemination of his personal information alongside what he asserts are defamatory statements about him on social media.
In a carefully-worded statement, Morawiecki emphasized, “During an electoral campaign, we must exercise the utmost caution in our words and actions, even as we unveil falsehoods and manipulations from opposing factions.”
He further elaborated, “There has been an extensive proliferation of deceit and manipulation by opposing forces, and this falsehood has been uncovered and exposed.”
“However,” Morawiecki continued, “An error occurred during the exposure of this falsehood,” clarifying his decision to relieve the minister from his position. The focus now, he reiterated, is to shift attention away from the mistake and towards prioritizing the welfare of the patients.
The unfolding situation took a new turn when a private broadcaster, TVN, aired footage depicting patients in Poznań grappling with the unavailability of pain-relieving medication due to new prescription regulations implemented on August 2.
Dr. Piotr Pisula, providing insight into the matter, revealed his inability to issue the necessary prescriptions. Subsequently, Minister Niedzielski proceeded to publish Pisula’s personal data on a social media platform, along with assertions that the doctor had prescribed the restricted medication under his own name.
Pisula, in response, issued a formal legal notice on Monday, calling for an apology and a monetary settlement of PLN 100,000 (equivalent to EUR 22,580), to be directed towards a hospice in Poznań.
The situation saw further developments as Wojciech Andrusiewicz, a spokesperson for the health ministry, reported that an evaluation of the electronic prescription system unveiled that Pisula had never attempted to prescribe the said drugs to patients.