A bitter pill to swallow

The current expenditure of zł.34 billion will increase by zł.5 billion each year over the next three years. "This is about a 20-percent growth that hasn't taken place for the last 16 years," said Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz after the government's meeting.

Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska assured journalists that zł.6 billion more would be designated to the health-care system in next year's budget. The government plans to achieve the increase by gradually raising the health contribution taken from workers' paychecks to nine percent in 2009. Additional health insurance and a contribution for the treatment of the elderly and disabled will be introduced in 2008 and, finally, the costs of pre-hospital treatment as a part of medical emergency assistance will be covered by the budget.

According to Krzysztof Bukiel, president of the National Trade Union for Doctors (OZZL), the new program does not address the demonopolization of the National Health Fund (NFZ), nor the equal treatment of public and private health-care providers in terms of services contracting.

"The proposals concerning the salary rises are also unclear. The Minister says they will grow by 30 percent in October, then the Prime Minister says they will rise, but only for those who have a beggar's salary. So it's not clear who will get a raise and how much. We will believe in the raise if the NFZ increases the payment for services by 20 percent, which could be spent on salaries," says Bukiel.

In the meantime, doctors in over 70 hospitals across the country are still on strike. Ludwik Dorn, Minister of the Interior and Administration, has already ordered the Silesian voivoid to investigate whether the strike in 18 hospitals in the region is legal.