District hospitals on the brink of bankruptcy
Many hospitals are unable to implement the provisions of the amendment to the law providing for an increase in health care salaries. They are announcing bankruptcy filings.
As of July 1 of this year, new health care wage rates are in effect. This is the result of an amendment to the law on how to determine the lowest basic salaries of some employees in medical entities. Hospitals, however, cannot afford the increases. Wladyslaw Perchaluk, chairman of the board of the Association of County Hospitals of the Silesian Voivodeship, said at a meeting of the Senate Health Committee that two Silesian hospitals could declare bankruptcy in October or November. In general, more than 20 hospitals in Silesia are in trouble. Directors have run out of money for raises, so staff have begun to give notice. In turn, Renata Kazanowska, deputy mayor of Warsaw, reported that as many as half of the hospitals in Warsaw are short of money. Beata Małecka-Libera, chairwoman of the Senate Health Committee, says most hospitals are unable to fulfill the provisions of the law.
The National Health Service, in response to these problems, has announced that it will raise the valuations of services in EDs, emergency rooms, internal medicine and night and holiday care.
