Mass Liquidation of Maternity Wards Becomes Reality: 36 Hospital Applications Submitted to NFZ

The National Health Fund is reviewing 36 hospital applications to close or re-profile departments as falling demographics and new regulations drive restructuring across Polish medical facilities.

Applications for Ward Liquidation and Re-profiling at the NFZ

The National Health Fund (NFZ) has received 36 applications regarding the liquidation or re-profiling of hospital wards, according to information provided by the NFZ to PAP. In exchange for a phased-out ward, medical facilities are set to receive 50 percent of their lump-sum funding for a period of two years.

The option to re-profile or phase out a ward in conjunction with receiving 50 percent of the lump-sum payment is one of the solutions provided in the amendment to the act on healthcare services financed from public funds. These changes aim to improve the financial condition of medical facilities and adjust their offerings to actual health needs, having entered into force on September 17, 2025.

Fund Decisions: Positive Evaluations, Pending Applications, and Statistics

Since then, 36 applications have been submitted to the NFZ. The Fund has positively evaluated 16 of them, 12 are currently under evaluation, two were deemed unjustified by the NFZ, and in several cases hospitals have withdrawn or suspended their applications, according to data obtained by PAP from the National Health Fund.

Which Wards Disappeared Most Frequently? Maternity and Surgery Lead the Way

Most of the submissions concerned the phasing out of round-the-clock wards and converting them into ones operating in a one-day surgery mode or planned hospitalization, although in a few cases it also involved the complete liquidation of a ward without replacing it with another. The most frequently phased-out departments are obstetrics and gynecology, and surgery, followed by otolaryngology, ophthalmology, and neonatology. Single applications concerned dermatology and neurology.

The Case of the Hospital in Piła: Re-profiling Ophthalmology to One-Day Procedures

The NFZ positively reviewed the application from the Stanisław Staszic Specialist Hospital in Piła concerning ophthalmology. The facility gave up 24-hour hospitalizations in favor of one-day procedures and an ophthalmology outpatient clinic. The facility’s director, Grzegorz Sieńczewski, told PAP that the motivation for introducing the changes was not to obtain half of the lump sum for the phased-out ward.

We qualified for the 50 percent system completely by accident, explained the director. We submitted the application to the Fund last year, and processing it took so long that the NFZ’s decision coincided with the entry into force of the new regulations, he clarified.

Sieńczewski stated that this change constitutes the legalization of the actual state of affairs. Ever since he became the director of the hospital in Piła nearly two years ago, there have been no patients staying overnight in the ophthalmology ward, meaning there is no need for them to remain at the facility after a procedure.

Our motivation was patient safety and the rationality of spending money. If we were to ensure the 24-hour operation of the ward, a doctor in ophthalmology would spend 99, if not 100 percent of their on-call time in an empty ward, the director said.

Alongside the 50 percent lump sum, the hospital has secured a new contract for procedures performed in the re-profiled ward.

Sosnowiec Municipal Hospital: Transitioning Otolaryngology to Planned Mode

The formal change that legalized the existing state of affairs also applies to the Sosnowiec Municipal Hospital. Aneta Kawka, the hospital’s president, stated that the facility changed the admission mode for patients in otolaryngology starting July 1, shifting from a 24-hour ward to a planned mode.

This ward was already functioning that way mostly anyway, because most sudden laryngological cases are trauma cases, and nearby is the voivodeship hospital trauma center, which mostly admits such patients around the clock. This means that in practical terms, no change occurred, and we have long wanted to regulate this issue. This possibility arose when the NFZ enabled the transformation of such a ward into a planned one, previously there was no such alternative, Kawka said.

The Sosnowiec Municipal Hospital also received a separate contract for otolaryngological services in planned mode, while the hospital’s lump sum for this year retained half of the contract for the phased-out 24-hour ward.

Pabianice Phased Out Obstetrics and Neonatology Due to Falling Birth Rates

Pabianice Medical Center Sp. z o.o. has phased out obstetrics and neonatology. Hospital spokesperson Patrycja Socha told PAP that demographics played a significant role in making this decision.

In recent years, the number of births in our hospital has systematically declined. In 2025, there were only 346, which is less than one per day, the spokesperson informed, noting that financial indicators and the necessity of renovating the delivery suite, which would cost about PLN 10 million, were also crucial factors.

Since July 1, we have not been accepting births, and the obstetrics and gynecology ward has become a department of minimally invasive gynecology and oncological gynecology. Simultaneously, along with the liquidation of obstetrics, we also closed the neonatology ward. Nevertheless, female patients up to the 20th week of pregnancy are guaranteed full care with us, Socha emphasized.