The proposed changes would allow the Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System (AOTMiT) to collect more detailed data on doctors’ earnings and hospital labor costs.
At present, hospitals and clinics submit anonymized salary data to the agency.
Under the planned rules, the information would be linked to individual doctors through their PESEL personal identification number and their PWZ (Prawo Wykonywania Zawodu) medical license number.
Health Minister Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda has said the aim is to create a more transparent pay system in Poland’s publicly funded healthcare sector.
The ministry is also analyzing measures that would limit payroll costs to 60 to 70 percent of a hospital’s budget.
Sobierańska-Grenda has acknowledged that in some hospitals, wage costs already exceed 106 percent of the facility’s budget, meaning they are higher than the institution’s total available funding.
The issue has become more pressing as hospitals face staff shortages and rising labor costs.
Many doctors in Poland work under contracts rather than standard employment contracts, which gives them more room to negotiate pay, especially in sought-after specialties.
Łukasz Jankowski, head of the Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists, said doctors with about six years of experience who work on contracts currently earn an average of PLN 20,000 to 30,000 gross a month.
He said around 600 doctors in Poland earn more than PLN 100,000 (EUR 23,500, USD 27,250) gross a month.
Jankowski said the highest-paid doctors are usually specialists in short supply, who can demand high rates because hospitals need them to keep services running.
According to the AOTMiT, linking pay data to individual doctors would help assess actual working time and workloads among medical staff employed in multiple places. It would also help detect possible abuses, including unlawful employment practices, and identify staff shortages in specific regions or specialties.
The proposal has been included in an amendment to the law on publicly funded health care services and has already been submitted to the Government Standing Committee.
Hospital representatives warn that the planned limits could be difficult to achieve. Facilities are legally required to raise pay for medical staff each year, while they have limited influence over the prices paid for publicly funded treatment by the National Health Fund (NFZ).
The medical community has also raised objections. The Polish Chamber of Physicians and Dentists argues that the AOTMiT already has enough data to analyze labor costs and price medical services.
Doctors have also warned that linking pay levels to PESEL and PWZ numbers would involve collecting highly sensitive personal data, increasing the risk of leaks or misuse.
(rt/gs)
Source: tvp.info