Law and Justice (PiS) is setting up a special team tasked with preparing “a legal framework for healthcare reform, with particular emphasis on clearly separating private and public healthcare.” The details were presented during the Medical Summit by Prof. Przemysław Czarnek, Law and Justice (PiS) candidate for prime minister.
Medical Summit in the Sejm
A Medical Summit was held today in the Sejm with the participation of the Law and Justice (PiS) vice-chairman and candidate for prime minister, Prof. Przemysław Czarnek, as well as hospital directors, doctors, representatives of local governments, and members of parliament. In his speech, Prof. Czarnek recalled that a vote on a motion of no confidence in Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda will take place on Thursday.
“This vote must be preceded by this kind of meeting and a clear diagnosis of what is happening. Following the diagnosis, there must be proposals for solutions that need to be implemented. Today, after a series of meetings held following protests by county hospitals, after meetings in hospital facilities and in the Sejm, we have a very clearly defined picture of the situation in healthcare. This is not a crisis. We have dealt with crises in healthcare many times. Today, we are facing a collapse,” said the politician.
Prof. Czarnek pointed out that “there are three issues that must be addressed very precisely, which together make up this collapse of the healthcare system.” He recalled that “in 2024, a major crisis emerged at the beginning of the fourth quarter, in 2025 it appeared at the beginning of the third quarter, and in 2026 it already occurred in the second quarter.”
“This is not a matter of managing one county hospital or another. 91 percent of the 207 county hospitals are operating at a loss in their core activities. In 44 cases, we are dealing with bankruptcy. Everyone talks about queues and shortening waiting times for access to healthcare services and examinations. Today, more than 5.4 million people are in queues. This means that every sixth Polish citizen is currently waiting for an appointment, tests, or a procedure. Among those waiting, as many as 1.123 million are classified as urgent cases. When we break these queues down, it looks as follows: 914,000 people are waiting for outpatient physiotherapy, with a median waiting time of 237 days; 224,000 patients are waiting for a colonoscopy, with an average waiting time of 235 days,” he stressed.
The Law and Justice (PiS) candidate for prime minister also noted that “in 2025 alone, 46 wards in the mother-and-child segment were closed, which is more than twice as many as before – this means the liquidation of pediatric and maternity wards, among others.”
“This means that women, in order to give birth, must travel dozens of kilometers to the nearest hospital. In a situation of demographic collapse in Poland, we are additionally discouraging women from becoming mothers. Today, being a mother under such conditions of destroying hospital and maternity infrastructure requires increasing heroism,” he explained.
The third element highlighted by the politician was “a massive budget gap.”
“I do not recall a situation in which a health minister, whose role is to serve Poles by organizing healthcare services, seeing a budget gap for the next year of 23 billion złoty, does not write to the finance minister and the prime minister: ‘We need 23 billion złoty,’ but instead writes to the finance minister: ‘We can cut here, here, and here.’ The health minister, instead of ensuring that funds are secured, points out where funding can be reduced. And a patient who feels unwell and wants to save their life does not exist in this system. In Poland today, in this collapse of healthcare, the patient loses to the system before they even become a patient. That is precisely why a vote of no confidence in the health minister is necessary,” he stated.
PiS to establish a special team for healthcare reform
Prof. Czarnek also announced that Law and Justice (PiS) will establish a special team to prepare a legal framework for healthcare reform, with particular emphasis on clearly separating private and public healthcare. The team will be led by Stanisław Karczewski and Katarzyna Sójka.
“We must put a stop to the privatization of public healthcare,” he concluded.