“In the face of other health care problems, such as hospital debt, lack of reimbursed cystic fibrosis drugs and lack of medical staff, patients are treated lightly by the claim that improving access to better food in hospitals is a challenge. Member of Parliament Katarzyna Lubnauer.
PiS published the second point of its program for the next semester on social media on Tuesday morning. In a short video recording, Health Minister Katarzyna Sójka announced the introduction of the “Good Meal” program for patients of Polish hospitals. The facilities will receive extra money and the National Health Fund will ensure that the quality of the food is significantly improved.
KO deputies Katarzyna Lubnauer and Monika Wielichowska hosted a press conference entitled “PiS as a threat to Poland’s health security”. Lubnauer views the topic of feeding hospital patients as a “heated cutlet.” Wielichowska recalled that “in April 2018, the Supreme Court talked about nutrition in hospitals, and the basic conclusion in the report was that improving the quality of nutrition requires systemic solutions.”
The healthcare system does not guarantee proper nutrition for patients in hospitals. The regulations in force in Poland do not specify dietary standards in hospitals and health requirements, methods for assessing the quality of food, rules for monitoring food services in hospitals, or rules for employing dietitians in hospital wards.
She quoted the report.
Nutritional standards
Wieelechowska said that the regulation on improving the quality of nutrition in hospitals issued by former health minister Adam Niedzielski has not yet entered into force.
When the PiS ad about hospital nutrition came out, I got texts from my parents saying they needed medicine
said Lubnauer.
The cystic fibrosis drug is reimbursed in most countries of the European Union, but it is still not reimbursed in Poland. This is not only a matter of the comfort of life, but also of the safety and life chances of these little children. Medicines for women, medicines for some types of cancer, medicines for cancer – all this is missing
– she said.
Lubnauer pointed out that while one might think “it’s a question of a lack of money in the system,” something else stems from the parliamentary scrutiny she and Wielichowska performed on the Medical Fund. Lubnauer said that “it turned out that the money that should have been spent on modern therapies, on the treatment of children with rare diseases, on everything that would ensure that Poland would no longer be a country of zrzutka.pl is being rolled over.”
This means that of the PLN 400 billion in the first year only PLN 900 million is spent, the following year only PLN 2.2 billion and of the PLN 4 billion only PLN 2.2 billion. In general, after more than two years, it turns out that PLN 5.3 billion has already been rolled up
she switched.
On the one hand, we have children who are not given medicines that allow them to function and survive, for example, medicines for cystic fibrosis, and at the same time money is transferred for the next year without being spent for these purposes.
point them out.
Hospital debts
Wielichowska said another problem is record hospital debt, which has increased eight times compared to the times of the PO and PSL governments.
District hospitals in particular are on the verge of bankruptcy. The total value of the liabilities of independent public health institutions was almost PLN 10 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, over PLN 10 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015 and over PLN 19 billion in the fourth quarter of 2022. These amounts are provisional. , no extensive data
– she said.
Members also raised the issue of the lack of medical staff.
About a quarter of active doctors and nurses have reached retirement age. The average age of nurses in Poland is steadily rising and was over 54 years old at the end of 2020, while it was over 50 years old at the end of 2015
said Wielichowska.
Lubnauer said that “in 2015, the average wait time to see a specialist doctor was 2.4 months, and after eight years of PiS rule, the average wait time to see a doctor was 4.1 months.” As such, Lubnauer underlined, “saying that improving access to better food in hospitals is a challenge doesn’t mean you take all patients seriously.”
READ MORE: The second fact of PiS. “It will change hospital nutrition standards for the better”; ‘Health care spending is at an all-time high’
edy/PAP
Source: wPolityce