The College of Family Physicians in Poland is concerned about the terms of contracting services in the framework of primary health care for next year, proposed by the National Health Fund.
In a statement released to PAP on Friday, the main board of the College expressed deep concern about the content of the ordinance of the President of the National Health Fund on the conditions for concluding and implementing contracts for providing services in primary health care.
This regulation – according to the College – does not take into account any of the comments raised by the environment. The complete omission of the suggestions of family doctors raises legitimate concerns about the further proper functioning of PHC, according to the KLRwP communiqué.
The organization emphasizes that, as the largest scientific society of primary care physicians, it expects to amend the published ordinance. The College of Family Physicians in Poland has existed since 1992. It associates, according to its own estimates, approx. 4,5 thousand. family doctors.
The position of the College – as its president Maciej Godycki-Ćwirko informed PAP – was handed over to the president of the National Health Fund, Jacek Paszkiewicz. They were also received by the Minister of Health, Ewa Kopacz, and the President of the Supreme Medical Chamber, Maciej Hamankiewicz.
On Thursday, talks with the National Health Fund on contracting benefits were broken by the Zielonogórskie Agreement Federation, which includes service providers from almost all provinces – over 14 thousand. doctors; the West Pomeranian Voivodeship is an exception. The agreement announces that it will not sign contracts on the current terms.
PZ wants to increase the capitalization rate by 72 groszy (funds paid by the National Health Fund for providing medical advice to a patient) for services provided by a primary care physician. Currently, it amounts to PLN 8. The financing of services at the level of 2008, proposed by the National Health Fund, violates the health safety of patients, does not allow doctors to properly diagnose and treat, PZ assesses. The National Health Fund does not agree with the doctors’ allegations.
The president of the Zielonogórski Agreement, Jacek Krajewski, emphasized in an interview with PAP on Monday that the ordinance of the president of the National Health Fund, issued on December 1, increased the duties of primary care physicians, but did not increase the financing of services. The regulation extends our working time; additional verification of benefits was introduced, and greater reporting tasks were imposed. We applied to the Fund to amend the ordinance, but our comments were rejected. We asked the Minister of Health for mediation, said Krajewski.
According to the ordinance, from January 2011, GPs will also provide more detailed data on some health services. Until now, these were collective data, now they are to contain detailed data on some groups of patients – children and adolescents. The data will concern, inter alia, the number of home visits of doctors and nurses and compulsory vaccinations. These benefits constitute 5 percent. from 1,35 million benefits provided under POZ. (PAP)