Hospitals are limiting procedures because they fear that the National Health Fund (NFZ) will not pay them for over-performed treatments. Patients endure months-long waits or go into debt to pay for private care. The number of joint replacement surgeries has already fallen by 14% – reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
Data from the NFZ shows that the number of joint replacements performed this year has declined for the second consecutive year, this time by about 14%. A total of just over 55,000 procedures were carried out – most of them hip replacements, which also saw the largest drop – about 17%. As a result, the share of this type of joint replacement fell to 56%, down 2 percentage points compared to last year – reports DGP.
The newspaper notes that in terms of the number of joint replacements, this year will be the weakest since 2021.
“If the current pace continues until the end of the year, the total number of procedures in 2025 will be around 100,000. By comparison, in 2024 it was over 117,000, as it was in 2023. In 2022 the number exceeded 105,000, and in 2021 it was 87,000,” it calculates.
The number of procedures began to slow in April, when it became clear that the NFZ was running out of funds, meaning hospitals might have trouble recovering the full amount for over-performed procedures – explains the newspaper. June saw a deepening of this decline. Only 3,300 hip replacements were performed, compared to 4,500 in May and 5,800 in March of this year.
Because payment problems persist, this year’s procedures are also being postponed to next year, which means waiting lists are growing even longer. According to data from the Świat Przychodni portal, the current average waiting time is 527 days.