NFZ Head Says Poland Has Too Many Round-The-Clock Hospital Wards

National Health Fund President Filip Nowak states that Poland has an excessive number of round-the-clock hospital wards and announces that 36 applications have already been submitted to phase out or reprofile unprofitable units.

Too Many 24-Hour Wards

– There are too many hospitals in Poland that operate on a 24-hour duty regime and could work in a planned system. We are paying medical personnel too much money for being on duty. I am an enemy of closing hospitals, I am an enthusiast of adapting the product offer of hospitals to the needs of residents, said Filip Nowak.

– If we have surgical wards operating 24 hours a day, and we have about 180 such wards, and an “acute” procedure is performed there once a week, it begs for patients to be treated there on a planned basis. So that on weekends there is only an on-call duty by phone, Nowak explained.

Interviewer Piotr Salak asked what to do in the event of an emergency. – Go to a hospital that offers, firstly, strong “surgery” and, secondly, multidisciplinary care – because you do not know what is wrong when you feel bad – and in which (hospital) this security is professional. The number of procedures performed is the experience of medical personnel, not only doctors, replied the NFZ president.

36 Applications for Warding Down Units

New regulations have been in force since mid-September 2025, allowing hospitals to phase out or reprofile unprofitable wards. According to the act, the facility receives 50 percent of the previous flat-rate payment for that ward for two years in return, while being able to sign a new contract for a changed scope of services. The aim of the changes is to improve the financial condition of hospitals and adapt their offer to the real needs of the region.

According to National Health Fund data obtained by PAP, hospitals across Poland have started using the new regulations. The NFZ has already received 36 such applications, of which 16 have been positively reviewed. Hospitals most often give up 24-hour care in favor of planned hospitalization or one-day procedures. Cuts usually apply to obstetrics, surgery, otolaryngology, and ophthalmology. For example, medical facilities in Piła (ophthalmology) and Sosnowiec (otolaryngology) abandoned 24-hour admissions because – as directors admit in conversations with PAP – keeping doctors on night duty missed the point, and the wards were empty anyway.

Concerns Over Private Healthcare

RMF FM also asked the NFZ president whether he is not afraid that in connection with the government-prepared reform, which among other things will introduce an upper limit on remuneration for doctors employed in public health care, they will leave for private facilities. Let us recall, the maximum rate will be 240 PLN gross per hour, and the total monthly earnings cap within the limit is 16 times the minimum wage, which is currently 76,800 PLN gross.

– I hear that in private health care there is an opportunity to work longer, higher earnings, Nowak replied. He added, however, that there is no guaranteed number of patients and financial stability there, plus there is high competition.

Inspection at Południowy Hospital

The NFZ president also referred to the issue of inspections in hospitals: – I would like us to be able to have more inspectors. This year we have already inspected more hospitals than in the whole of 2025. We enter a hospital with an inspection when our analysts notice some pathology.

The interviewer asked about Południowy Hospital. – We inspected it earlier, before media materials about it appeared. In 2024, we carried out an inspection at the surgical ward. It was about incorrect settlement of services, incorrectly issued invoices. There was an inspection and a penalty in the form of withdrawal of benefits. We did not inspect the ER because there was no signal that things were happening there that would affect its functioning, Nowak explains.

He announced that the inspection currently underway at the ER in Południowy Hospital will end by mid-September. – This must be reliable medical documentation, he explains.