“If funding for proper nutrition is included in the general pool of resources, a given facility will not focus on improving meal quality but will allocate those funds to debts and liabilities, staffing, fees, or medical supplies. Meals will end up at the very bottom of that list. This, in turn, confronts patients with the prospect of starvation-level and low-quality portions. The government is looking for savings and has decided to do so at the expense of citizens’ health,” Katarzyna Sójka, former health minister and currently a member of the Health Council to President Karol Nawrocki, told the portal Niezalezna.pl.
The pilot program “A Good Meal in Hospitals” has come to an end—the nutrition rate proposed by the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System will be PLN 4.50 lower than the one under the program. According to hospitals, maintaining the current standards will be impossible, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna on its website.
The portal recalls that the pilot program “Good Meal,” launched in 2023, was phased out at the end of last year. A total of 582 facilities participated. More than PLN 1 billion was allocated to its implementation.
Thanks to the pilot, the daily nutrition rate was set at PLN 25.62. Previously, it did not exceed PLN 10, and its amount was determined independently by hospital directors.
Donald Tusk’s government, in its search for savings, has not spared the healthcare sector. The plan for this year envisages savings of more than PLN 10 billion in this segment—among other measures by reducing access to specialists, the number of funded surgeries, drug reimbursements for seniors, and funding for county hospitals. As can be seen, the cuts have also affected the “Good Meal” program.
Saving on Poles’ Health
“In 2023, when the idea of the ‘Good Meal’ emerged, it delivered very good results. Even some members of the then Civic Platform spoke positively about it, saying it was a successful reform—especially because the funds were directly earmarked and dedicated to the program. Hospitals could not divert these resources for other purposes. Now that has changed,” Katarzyna Sójka, an MP from Law and Justice (PiS) and former health minister, told Niezalezna.pl.
“‘Good Meal’ was one of the elements that, at health conferences, was indicated as something that should remain unchanged. And what did the Ministry of Health do at the end of 2025? It abandoned the pilot,” she recalled.
“This is the result of the government’s search for funds. The plan clearly states that the health ministry will seek PLN 10 billion in savings at the National Health Fund in 2026. One of the items was precisely the liquidation of the ‘Good Meal.’ Savings were sought at patients’ expense,” she added.
“Proper nutrition is one of the most important elements of treatment. When a patient cannot, for example, take medications orally, nutritional therapy becomes crucial. The decision to end the ‘Good Meal’ program significantly reduces the possibility that a patient’s meal will be properly balanced, contain the appropriate number of calories, and guarantee quality,” MP Sójka emphasized.
It is worth recalling that at the end of last year the Ministry of Health introduced a regulation establishing uniform nutrition standards across all facilities. Meals are to be properly balanced and varied, tailored by a physician to the patient’s individual needs, and take cultural considerations into account. The Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System set the daily nutrition rate at PLN 21, and PLN 23.50 for pregnant women. This means that the rate proposed by the National Health Fund is PLN 4.50 lower than that applied under the program.
“These are merely superficial actions by the Ministry of Health,” our interlocutor commented.
Funding for meals is to be provided, but it will be a sum folded into the general pool for procedures performed by a hospital. In other words, it will not be earmarked and dedicated, as it was under the “Good Meal” program. If funds for proper nutrition are included in the general pool, facilities will not focus on improving meal quality but will allocate the money to debts and liabilities, staffing, fees, or medical supplies—wherever the problems are greatest. Meals will end up at the very bottom of the list, she explained.
“The specter of starvation rations in hospitals is returning. If facilities are not required to do so—if they do not obtain funds that must be spent exclusively on meals—they will cut these expenditures wherever possible. Where there is no money, the meal will be smaller and of poorer quality,” she concluded.