Sejm Passes Law Linking Physician Salaries to Individual Identifiers

The Polish Sejm passed legislation on Friday, June 19, requiring the tracking of medical professional earnings through PESEL numbers or professional license identifiers to enable precise analysis by the medical technology agency.

New Oversight for Physician Earnings

The Sejm has approved a government-backed bill mandating the connection of physician salary data to specific personal identification numbers. Previously, data collected by the Agency for Health Technology Assessment was anonymized, preventing the aggregation of income from multiple employment sources or diverse contractual arrangements.

The Ministry of Health currently lacks a comprehensive view of total physician compensation, particularly for those working simultaneously across various entities or under a mix of full-time contracts and private agreements.

Government Rationale and Transparency

Prime Minister Donald Tusk emphasized that the initiative aims to protect the medical profession from public suspicion and uncertainty. He noted that reports of junior physicians without specializations earning nearly 2 million PLN are concerning and warrant systemic investigation.

Catalyst: The Hospital Salary Scandal

The urgency for this legislation followed a controversy involving Dawid Kacprzyk, a local politician and doctor who disclosed earnings of 1.7 million PLN. The investigation revealed that 1.6 million PLN of his income originated from a single contract as a SOR coordinator at the Southern Hospital in Warsaw.

In response to the scandal, Kacprzyk resigned from his party membership and returned 500,000 PLN. Consequently, Warsaw authorities dismissed the entire management board of the Southern Hospital, appointing Aneta Gomółka-Siembora as the new president to oversee audits and investigations alongside the National Health Fund and the prosecutor’s office.