Health Minister resigns

Health Minister Marek Balicki quit yesterday after only three months in the job, dealing another blow to Prime Minister Leszek Miller's embattled minority government. Balicki quit a day after Miller overruled his obj ections to the appointment of a National Health Fund (NFZ) chief, casting health policy into disarray just as a new, centralized system came into effect. The upheaval comes a month after Miller sacked his junior coalition partner leaving his Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) short of a parliamentary majority ahead June's EU referendum. Balicki had warned repeatedly that he could not work with Miller's nominee as national health fund chief, Al eksander Nauman, on turning round the country's crisis-hit health service. He will be replaced by Ewa Kralkowska, another former deputy minister ousted early this year on Balicki's insistence. (Reuters) J.K.