You can't improve the situation of patients by attacking doctors. Unions react to the Prime Minister's words.

• On Wednesday (July 23), the Prime Minister announced the composition of the Council of Ministers after the reconstruction, including the change of the head of the Ministry of Health.
• The current minister, Izabela Leszczyna, will be replaced by Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda, president of Pomeranian Hospitals.
• In his speech, Donald Tusk announced the depoliticization of the ministry and informed that in the coming days it will be exclusively in the hands of specialists in managing the healthcare system, and the only goal will be to improve the situation of patients, not doctors - as he noted.
• - Instead of a political signal that health care is important to the government, it is a direct attack on medical professionals - this is how the Prime Minister's speech was commented by the medical self-government
• The OZZL assessed this as "unacceptable rhetoric" that once again tries to shift the blame for the "dramatic" state of health care onto the medical community.

The Prime Minister announced on Wednesday that Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda would replace Izabela Leszczyna as Minister of Health. He added that the Ministry of Health would be "handled exclusively by professionals" in managing the healthcare system, with the sole goal of improving the situation of patients. "I'll be very blunt, it's not about improving the situation of doctors, but about improving the situation of patients," the Prime Minister added.

In a statement released to the Polish Press Agency (PAP) on Thursday, the OZZL expressed "deep outrage and opposition" to the prime minister's words. The union stressed that this is unacceptable rhetoric, which once again attempts to shift blame for the "dramatic" state of healthcare onto the medical community. The OZZL noted that doctors are once again becoming convenient political targets.

- It is impossible to improve the situation of patients by attacking doctors - it was emphasized.

According to the OZZL, the government is diverting attention from its own failings: organizational chaos, inadequate service pricing, contracts with facilities signed historically rather than according to needs, lack of digitalization, and a lack of broad reforms. "We, the doctors, did not create this framework," they emphasized.

The Chairwoman of the National Board of the OZZL, Grażyna Cebula-Kubat , quoted in the submitted statement, noted that politicians had ignored the warnings and demands of doctors for years.

- If Prime Minister Tusk thinks that he will improve the situation of patients by turning society against doctors, he is very wrong - she stressed.

"Stories about wealthy doctors are taken out of context"

The OZZL emphasized that, contrary to the Prime Minister's words, the situation of many doctors requires fundamental improvement in terms of work organization, leadership, and satisfaction. The union emphasized that the government's stories about "high-flying doctors" are taken out of context. The union pointed out that among the nearly 150,000 doctors, there are specialists who "are highly valued by the system," but there are also doctors who, in public hospitals, "are paid 50 złoty per hour in the basic position held by every Pole."

According to the OZZL, declarations about "depoliticizing the Ministry of Health" ring false coming from a politician who simultaneously divides the healthcare community into better and worse. They emphasized that if the new Minister of Health were to act "against the interests" of the medical community, it would not constitute reform, but rather further erosion of a "shaky system dominated by distrust and mutual resentment."

The OZZL appealed to the government to return to responsible communication and substantive discussions.

Jolanta Sobierańska-Grenda is a lawyer with an MBA for medical staff and the president of Szpitale Pomorskie, a company managing four hospital entities owned by the local government of the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

The Prime Minister said that Sobierańska-Grenda had introduced "law and order with a firm hand" in hospitals in Pomerania.

Leszczyna failed to implement hospital reform. After protracted work and consultations, on July 1st, the government adopted a bill prepared by the Ministry of Health, which assumes flexible restructuring of departments and the merger of hospitals by local governments. The bill is currently being considered by the Sejm (lower house of parliament).

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