“We thought we wouldn’t have to take to the streets anymore, but everything suggests we will,” trade unionists told Niezalezna.pl, commenting on the appointment of Jolanta Sobierańska‑Grenda as the new Minister of Health. Grzegorz Urbaniak, a member of the presidium of the National Secretariat of Health Protection of NSZZ “Solidarity”, emphasized that the new minister is known “for her very strict approach, lack of mobility and flexibility in negotiations, and an autocratic attitude in implementing changes.”
Replacing Leszczyna
Jolanta Sobierańska‑Grenda—a lawyer, doctor of economics, manager, and expert in the management of large medical entities—will replace Katarzyna Lubnauer (née Leszczyna) as Minister of Health. Until now, she served as the president of the management board of Pomorskie Hospitals Ltd. in Gdynia and previously as director of the Health Department of the Pomeranian Voivodeship Marshal’s Office in Gdańsk. According to media reports, she was tasked with restructuring and eliminating the debts of nearly 30 hospitals.
During the presentation of the new minister, Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that Sobierańska‑Grenda “will continue the work of Minister Leszczyna” and assured that “the digitization of medical services will be accelerated.” He also emphasized that the new minister “brought order with a very firm hand, despite the circumstances,” in the healthcare system of the Pomeranian region.
Niezalezna.pl asked “Solidarity” unionists from Pomerania about the “order” mentioned by Tusk, although not all of them were willing to speak on the record.
Relentless consolidation
Grzegorz Urbaniak noted that “thanks to her—quote unquote—a consolidation of some hospitals took place, which did not bring the expected results, as the current staffing situation in medical facilities is far from good.”
“We’re hearing, for example, that emergency departments and hospital wards are inadequately staffed with doctors and nurses,” he added.
“During that consolidation process, well-performing hospitals with low debt were merged with those burdened by large debts. It’s difficult to say to what extent this consolidation helped repair the hospitals’ finances, or whether anything improved at all, since data on the matter was released at the beginning, but then no longer shared,” the unionist noted.
He recalled that “the goal of consolidation was to prevent hospitals from incurring further debt, but the consolidations I remember didn’t achieve the intended results.”
“We’ve now reached a point where county hospitals in particular are loudly complaining about their financial state, caused in part by demands from nurses and doctors, who are mostly employed under excessively costly contracts and service agreements. That’s a key area where this reorganization needs to be evaluated,” he said.
Will healthcare privatization return?
Urbaniak acknowledged that “those who remember Sobierańska‑Grenda from her time at the Marshal’s Office and as the current president know her for her very strict approach, lack of mobility and negotiation flexibility, and an autocratic manner in driving change.”
Other unionists we spoke to about the new health minister preferred to remain anonymous. They stressed that during the consolidation process under her leadership, she “pursued a very aggressive policy of merging hospitals.”
“Oh Jesus! This will be a highway to privatization! We thought we wouldn’t have to take to the streets anymore, but it looks like we will,” said one of our sources.
Another emphasized the “great importance of Karol Nawrocki’s election as president,” because—he claims—“he will have the nuclear option, just like Lech Kaczyński, who blocked healthcare privatization in 2008.”
“Unless the Prime Minister tries to go around the rules, which can’t be ruled out considering his attitude toward the law,” added a “Solidarity” unionist.