The Rule of Law?
Riding roughshod over all suppliers' previous contracts with hospitals, this bill is yet another example of the government's inconsistency with the constitution, say lawyers. Hospital suppliers point out that, if passed, the bill will mean the elimination of thousands of small firms, and unemployment for tens of thousands of citizens.
Until now, the state has been legally required to guarantee hospital debts to all suppliers, whether in pharmaceuticals, equipment, catering or cleaning. Contracts between hospitals and suppliers have, therefore worked on a legal basis different from ordinary commercial contracts. Suppliers are required to demonstrate that they are in a financial position to provide hospitals with equipment; yet hospitals are not required to prove they are able to pay for equipment, on the understanding that it is not the hospital but the state that will foot the bill.
"At the time these debts were incurred, hospitals were not independent commercial enterprises, but institutions whose debts were guaranteed by the government. Otherwise, looking at the financial state of public hospitals - lets face it - who, with a business to run, would have supplied them?" says Tomasz Siematowski, attorney in law at Warsaw School of Economics.
Though unpromising for any supplier, the situation is most critical for those companies who have no clients other than hospitals. There are only about 70 private hospitals in this country, which means that for the majority of advanced medical equipment suppliers, public hospitals are their only source of income.
"The certainty that hospital debts to us are legally backed by the state, that it's not legally possible for hospitals to go bankrupt, is the only reason that our sector exists at present," says Anna Janczewska-Radwan, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Medical Devices.
Pharmaceutical, cleaning and catering suppliers to hospitals could also get badly burned, the only advantage of such suppliers is that they may have clients other than hospitals. Whether the recent announcement by domestic pharmaceutical producer, Polfa Tarchomin, which is owed more than zł.22 million by 700 hospitals, that the company has frozen deliveries to hospitals will be followed by other supplies is not yet certain,
"We are not excluding such an action," says Irena Rej, director of the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Concerns, "although following the bankruptcy of one company last year as result of unpaid debts by hospitals, most firms are abandoning hospital supply as quickly as they can."
Ironically, many hospitals suppliers actually favor the commercialization of hospitals per se. "20 percent of hospitals are not in debt, which shows that it is possible for a hospital to be run efficiently," says Anna Janczewska-Radwan.
"Let hospitals become commercial enterprises, then we will be able to deal with them on a normal commercial basis. But let the government first settle up credit extended on the basis of the previous legal arrangement," she says.
There is, however, some chance that the bill, now in Parliament, will never come into existence in its present form.
"There are loopholes and inconsistencies in the bill," says Adam Kruszewski, investment director at Enterprise Investors, Central Europe's largest investment fund, "which means that there is a good chance it will be retrieved and reformulated."
The Ministry of Health was, as ever, unable to comment on the issue.
Until now, the state has been legally required to guarantee hospital debts to all suppliers, whether in pharmaceuticals, equipment, catering or cleaning. Contracts between hospitals and suppliers have, therefore worked on a legal basis different from ordinary commercial contracts. Suppliers are required to demonstrate that they are in a financial position to provide hospitals with equipment; yet hospitals are not required to prove they are able to pay for equipment, on the understanding that it is not the hospital but the state that will foot the bill.
"At the time these debts were incurred, hospitals were not independent commercial enterprises, but institutions whose debts were guaranteed by the government. Otherwise, looking at the financial state of public hospitals - lets face it - who, with a business to run, would have supplied them?" says Tomasz Siematowski, attorney in law at Warsaw School of Economics.
Though unpromising for any supplier, the situation is most critical for those companies who have no clients other than hospitals. There are only about 70 private hospitals in this country, which means that for the majority of advanced medical equipment suppliers, public hospitals are their only source of income.
"The certainty that hospital debts to us are legally backed by the state, that it's not legally possible for hospitals to go bankrupt, is the only reason that our sector exists at present," says Anna Janczewska-Radwan, vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce of Medical Devices.
Pharmaceutical, cleaning and catering suppliers to hospitals could also get badly burned, the only advantage of such suppliers is that they may have clients other than hospitals. Whether the recent announcement by domestic pharmaceutical producer, Polfa Tarchomin, which is owed more than zł.22 million by 700 hospitals, that the company has frozen deliveries to hospitals will be followed by other supplies is not yet certain,
"We are not excluding such an action," says Irena Rej, director of the Chamber of Pharmaceutical Concerns, "although following the bankruptcy of one company last year as result of unpaid debts by hospitals, most firms are abandoning hospital supply as quickly as they can."
Ironically, many hospitals suppliers actually favor the commercialization of hospitals per se. "20 percent of hospitals are not in debt, which shows that it is possible for a hospital to be run efficiently," says Anna Janczewska-Radwan.
"Let hospitals become commercial enterprises, then we will be able to deal with them on a normal commercial basis. But let the government first settle up credit extended on the basis of the previous legal arrangement," she says.
There is, however, some chance that the bill, now in Parliament, will never come into existence in its present form.
"There are loopholes and inconsistencies in the bill," says Adam Kruszewski, investment director at Enterprise Investors, Central Europe's largest investment fund, "which means that there is a good chance it will be retrieved and reformulated."
The Ministry of Health was, as ever, unable to comment on the issue.
