One hundred thousand people will not receive cataract surgery. Seniors will not be able to afford the medicines they have used so far. We face a deepening collapse of county hospitals and some provincial ones, where doctors will stop providing services. The number of diagnostic tests will fall. This is a dramatic scenario resulting from successive cuts in healthcare spending, said in an interview with the portal Niezależna.pl Andrzej Kosztowniak, former minister of finance. The Law and Justice (PiS) MP comments on the planned cuts in next year’s budget for patient care.
MP Katarzyna Sójka (PiS) published a letter from the minister of health to the minister of finance. It shows, among other things, that the draft budget for next year assumes 10.3 billion złoty less for patients.
“Limits for specialist care are returning – 3.36 billion in ‘savings’ on the sick.
Cuts in diagnostic imaging (CT/MRI) – 1.26 billion less for patients.
Limits on cataract surgery – 94,000 people without the procedure.
A blow to county hospitals and 65+ medicine reimbursement.
Scrapping the Good Meal program in hospitals”, the former head of the Ministry of Health pointed out.
MP Mariusz Błaszczak, chairman of the Law and Justice Parliamentary Club, also commented on the matter.
“The government is looking for savings in healthcare! First they led to a situation where hospitals are inefficient, and now they want to tighten the screws even further (…) Healthcare in Poland is dying, and patient safety is increasingly at risk. We will not let this go!”, he wrote on X.
“The collapse of hospitals will deepen significantly.”
The portal Niezależna.pl asked Andrzej Kosztowniak, PiS MP and former minister of finance, to comment on the leaked letter.
“One hundred thousand people will not receive cataract surgery. Seniors will not be able to afford the medicines they used before, because reimbursement will be reduced. We face a deepening collapse of county hospitals and some provincial ones, where doctors will stop providing services. The number of diagnostic tests will fall. This is a dramatic vision resulting from further multibillion cuts,” the politician notes.
“All of Poland cannot receive treatment in clinical hospitals. From the perspective of Warsaw or Donald Tusk, who can simply fly to Gdańsk, it may look different. Meanwhile, the vast majority of treatment takes place at the level of county hospitals. Removing such a large share of funding will mean that doctors will stop providing services. The collapse of county hospitals and some provincial ones will deepen significantly. And it is precisely in these facilities that the real path of accessing healthcare ends for patients who are immobile, poorer, or weaker,” he adds.
“County hospitals are founded and run by individual counties. They already contribute huge sums to keep them running. When a new multibillion-złoty hole appears, this system, at the level of local government, may completely collapse,” the former minister warns.
“Taking money away from healthcare automatically creates problems for counties. Counties will bleed dry trying to maintain hospitals at any cost,” he adds.
“Tusk’s 100 specifics will neither feed us nor cure us. This is becoming increasingly clear. We face a very difficult year for the healthcare system,” he continues.
“Donald Tusk’s government put a noose around the neck of ordinary Poles long ago, and now it is pulling the rope from different sides, tightening it even more. The healthcare system is falling apart before our eyes. And in other areas of life, things are equally difficult,” Kosztowniak points out.
“Minister Domański is cutting spending because he sees everything falling apart. On the other hand, he has a boss who, through his attitude and statements, shows that he does not have to keep the promises he himself made or respect voters’ opinions. The only problem is that they forget one thing: in the end, we, Poles, will pay for this – and with the highest currency, our own health,” our interlocutor concludes.