Healthcare facilities will have to reduce tests, treatment, as well as procedures and surgeries. Hospitals will be forced to abandon programmes intended to improve patient recovery comfort. A heated debate is underway in the Sejm on the planned cuts to the 2026 healthcare budget. Criticism is coming from nearly all political groups.
Limiting hospital admissions and cancelling scheduled procedures and surgeries is only the beginning of what may await Poles in 2026. The ruling coalition faced a barrage of questions in the Sejm. Desperate appeals for reason and reflection – backed by warnings about the consequences of cutting healthcare funding – are coming from opposition politicians.
Speaking from the parliamentary rostrum, the leader of Partia Razem, Adrian Zandberg, stressed that the draft budget under debate cannot be taken seriously in light of the current crisis in healthcare financing and the sector’s actual collapse.
“The most anti-development budget of the 21st century”
“We are in a situation where hospitals are suspending admissions. Many wards are genuinely at risk of closure. This also applies to drug programmes. People are standing in the longest queues in years. Thousands of people will not live to see their operations, and it is clear that this year’s healthcare budget has completely fallen apart. And now you are presenting a budget in which the gap in healthcare funding is, conservatively, 20 billion złoty,” said the leader of the left-wing party from the parliamentary rostrum.
“You must have mixed up your Excel numbers,” commented Zandberg, adding that limiting funding for diagnostic tests is not only “stupid”.
“In the long run, it will not only harm people but also increase the costs of the healthcare system,” he stressed. He described the figures in the proposed budget as “bizarre”. He argued that the draft contains “further collapse and privatisation” of the system and added that “starving” healthcare to force its privatisation is an extremely dishonest move.
In his remarks, the politician said that “this is the most anti-development budget of the 21st century”, “this is some kind of joke”, and “someone must have swapped your spreadsheets” when referring to the proposals presented by the government.