24 October 2003 Warsaw

     The Polish Private Hospitals Association (OSSN) held a conference in Warsaw on 24 October 2003. The main topic of the conference was the invitation for offers issued by the National Health Fund for the year 2004. Despite existing reservations concerning some of the conditions of the invitation for offers, the OSSN welcomes the general tendency of contracting medical services and the meeting of deadlines for offer selection by the NFZ. Dr Andrzej Krupa, NFZ Director for Medical Affairs, who attended the conference, stressed again the equal treatment of public and private healthcare institutions during the examination of submitted offers. The OSSN currently owns over 50 private hospitals with a total of 2,300 beds. Taking into account the high competence of their medical personnel, the modern equipment, and the application of advanced treatment techniques, private hospitals have already become a significant complementary provider of medical services, in particular on the market of health services for insured patients. In the opinion of the Polish Private Hospitals Association the specific conditions of the invitation for offers are too strict and in many cases limit the availability of contracts for private hospitals, but also for smaller public hospitals. The criteria and requirements for the entities are in many cases irrational and unrealistic in the available time span, e.g. the necessity to have an intensive-care ward (hospitals with 10-50 beds have intensive monitoring rooms which are equipped on a par with specialist wards in large hospitals and guarantee complete safety of the patients). There is also no justification for restriction imposed on e.g. surgical procedures for cataract at private clinics using phacoemulsification, where until now it has been the primary method of treating patients suffering from poor vision. Almost half of all procedures employing this method have been carried out at private ophthalmological clinics. Additionally, all service providers point to the very disadvantageous and unilateral conditions presented to them by the NFZ. This is especially evident in the extended payment dates and numerous stipulated penalties arbitrarily charged (at any amount) even for small mistakes or inaccuracies in the calculations and reports submitted to the Fund. However, private hospitals, like other service providers, hope that the NFZ will take their comments into consideration and will introduce favourable changes to the conditions of the invitation for offers, which will help to resolve the current difficult situation to the benefit of all patients and service providers.