Hospital directors ask the Sejm to suspend work on the law capping doctors' pay and working hours

Hospital managers are calling for a halt to work on a law that would introduce limits on doctors' earnings and working hours. They presented this position at the Summit of County Hospitals in Warsaw, RMF FM reports. On Tuesday, 20 October, the Sejm returns to work on the bill.

The directors' main concern is the requirement that a doctor work at least half-time in one hospital. In their view, this would hamper or even make impossible the work of small clinics where doctors come to perform a specific task. Waldemar Malinowski, head of the Polish Association of County Hospital Employers, said surgical wards would disappear because part of the hours are covered by anaesthesiologists.

The managers propose setting limits on working time and earnings locally, depending on the situation in a given region, and intend to make that case to MPs this week.

The idea of limits followed the scandal at Warsaw's Southern Hospital. In the first half of October, Dawid K., coordinator of its emergency department (SOR) and a Civic Coalition councillor in the Ursus district, was charged with fraud worth 583,500 zlotys. According to the Zero.pl portal, during his anaesthesiology training he earned 1.6 million zlotys in medical facilities last year. The prosecutor imposed police supervision, bail of 200,000 zlotys and a travel ban with passport seizure. He faces up to 10 years in prison.