Southern Hospital Audit Exposes Shocking Irregularities, 110-Hour Shifts, and Prosecution

Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski revealed damning audit results at the Southern Hospital on August 5, uncovering severe labor violations, massive overpayments, and active criminal investigations.

Audit Reveals Widespread Violations

An audit conducted at the Warsaw Southern Hospital revealed irregularities concerning work organization, contract execution, shift accounting, and the functioning of the Hospital Emergency Department. Among the findings were shifts lasting up to 110 hours, double-billing for working time, and the payment of a salary for a function not provided for in the facility’s organizational regulations.

On Wednesday, August 5, Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski presented the results of the audit regarding the functioning of the Warsaw Southern Hospital. The inspection was ordered following media publications describing possible irregularities at the facility, including the employment and remuneration rules of Dr. Dawid Kacprzyk, a former Civic Coalition councilor in the Ursus district.

Unregulated Roles and Excessive Pay

As the capital’s mayor reported, the completed audit contains 44 recommendations for the hospital. Rafał Trzaskowski focused during the conference on six main areas related to the employment, remuneration, and work accounting of the doctor performing the duties of the emergency department coordinator.

The first of the presented findings concerns the function of the Hospital Emergency Department coordinator. According to Rafał Trzaskowski, such a position was not included in the facility’s organizational regulations, yet the hospital paid a salary for performing coordinator duties for about a year and a half.

Auditors also analyzed the rates paid to the doctor, who initially received 230 PLN per hour, which later increased to 300 PLN and subsequently 330 PLN per hour. As the mayor of Warsaw reported, the remuneration exceeded the rates of some experienced specialists, even though the doctor was in his second year of specialization, and no justification for the subsequent raises was found in the documentation.

Contract Overlaps and Monitoring Lapses

Another irregularity concerned the method of concluding contracts, as despite an existing contract with the doctor, the hospital held a tender after which another contract providing a higher rate was concluded. Auditors also pointed to an additional contract amounting to 10,000 PLN per month, with part of the duties performed under it overlapping with tasks carried out during shifts.

The documents did not clearly separate the activities performed under individual contracts, which, according to city representatives, created the risk that the hospital paid twice for performing the same tasks.

The person performing the duties of the emergency department coordinator had access to video feeds from the hospital cameras, but the facility did not keep a log allowing the determination of who and when used the monitoring system.

Flawed Time Tracking and Extreme Shifts

At the same time, the hospital had an electronic system for registering employee entries and exits, and access cards made it possible to check every entry violation, but this data was not used when calculating doctors’ working time, leaving schedules and statements submitted by doctors as the basis for payouts.

One of the most serious findings was the multi-hour shifts shown in the documentation, with the audit revealing instances of work lasting continuously for 48, 60, and 72 hours, and the longest recorded shift reaching 110 hours, or almost five days.

Controllers also pointed to a case of settling the same eight hours of a shift in two departments simultaneously, with remuneration paid for each position, and noted situations where the doctor was to perform services in other facilities during times overlapping with paid shifts at the Southern Hospital.

Self-Approval and Financial Corrections

In one of the examined cases, the doctor was to approve his own hour settlements, and after the matter was disclosed, 33 corrections of bills covering the period from January 31, 2025, to June 16, 2026, were submitted, with the value of corrected settlements exceeding half a million zlotys.

The audit also covered the organization of work at the Hospital Emergency Department, with Rafał Trzaskowski reporting a fine imposed by the National Health Fund due to excessively long waiting times by emergency medical teams for patient handover.

In some of the analyzed cases, the documentation did not confirm the doctor’s presence in the hospital, and controllers also drew attention to insufficient staffing at the emergency department registration desk.

Prior Findings and Prosecutor Inquiries

A separate inspection by the Supreme Audit Office previously showed that scheduled patient admissions also took place at the emergency department, even though the ward should be intended primarily for people in a state of sudden health or life threat. The office also pointed to the failure to properly separate services financed by the National Health Fund from commercial services, as well as overlapping hours for performing both types of services.

The irregularities are being handled by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, with the first investigation concerning the suspicion of leading the hospital to an unfavorable disposition of property in the amount of at least 558,558.70 PLN, and submitted invoices allegedly containing unreliable data regarding the number of hours worked according to the prosecutor’s statement.

A second proceeding covers the lack of proper supervision over the operation of the emergency department, patient admission rules, employment and remuneration payment to the person performing coordinator duties, and possible failure to fulfill duties by persons responsible for supervising the hospital. The scope of the investigation also includes the suspicion of admitting patients bypassing triage rules and without medical grounds, which are circumstances examined by investigators in the ongoing proceeding.

A two-person team of prosecutors was appointed to handle both cases, and the prosecutor’s office also reported actions aimed at entrusting some activities to the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, with proceedings being multi-threaded and their scope subject to expansion.

Management Resignations and Corrective Measures

The first findings of the municipal audit were presented on June 17, at which point the hospital terminated contracts with Dawid Kacprzyk and filed a notification to the prosecutor’s office, and a day later the supervisory board, at the request of the mayor of Warsaw, dismissed the entire previous management board of the facility.

Aneta Gomółka-Siembora was appointed as the president of the management board, tasked with cooperating with control bodies and implementing remedial measures resulting from audits and inspections, followed by the dismissal of the previous supervisory board and appointment of a new composition.

The new management board announced that it is organizing the rules for recording medical personnel’s working time and implementing solutions to limit excessive employee burdens, while the facility also declared cooperation with the prosecutor’s office, the National Health Fund, the medical self-government, and auditors acting on behalf of the Warsaw city hall.