The Polish Association of Private Hospitals (OSSP) opposes the National Health Fund’s new criteria for selecting bids: “This is a violation of the principles of fair competition.”
OSSP sent an official letter to the Ministry of Health and submitted a list of comments as part of the public consultation on the draft regulation amending the criteria for selecting bids in the hospital sector. Our organization strongly protests the introduction of a new evaluation criterion that makes the award of an additional 9 or 10 points in the bidding process contingent on the facility’s inclusion in the Hospital Care Security Scheme (SZOS).
The association’s main objections and arguments:
- Discrimination against specialized facilities: The proposed regulations favor large, multi-specialty mega-hospitals, disregarding the actual potential, quality, staff, and existing contribution to healthcare security made by private and specialized facilities.
- Lack of legal basis for the SZOS’s function: The Hospital Care Security Scheme serves solely an analytical and planning function (Article 95a of the Act on Health Benefits), not a binding eligibility category in National Health Fund (NFZ) tenders. Granting it legal force that determines scoring violates the principle of legality and Article 134 of the Act on Health Benefits.
- Threat to Access to Treatment: Awarding points based on the status of analytical maps rather than the actual quality and availability of services may lead to longer patient waiting lists, increased treatment costs, and an exodus of medical staff.
The National Association of Private Hospitals demands the complete removal of the proposed criterion from § 1 of the draft regulation (concerning, among other things, Tables 2, 4, 5, and 7 of Appendix 3). The OSSP urges that competitions be based on objective and transparent measures of treatment quality and the facility’s capacity.
Read the full article on the OSSP website
