Some hospital procedures have been postponed until next year. The National Health Fund has exhausted its funding limits.
Due to the exhaustion of annual funding limits from the National Health Fund, some elective procedures in hospitals in the Pomeranian Voivodeship will be postponed until 2026. The facilities assure that the changes will not apply to oncology patients, children, or cases requiring immediate life-saving intervention.
The general director of the University Clinical Centre in Gdańsk, Jakub Kraszewski , told PAP that the reduction in the financing of services by the National Health Fund is forcing the hospital to postpone some of them until next year.
Within ten months, we achieved and even exceeded the planned volume of services for 2025. If the National Health Fund (NFZ) does not provide funding for additional services, we must postpone some procedures until the earliest possible date," he explained.
The decision applies to departments such as cardiology, cardiac surgery, orthopedics, and urology . Kraszewski emphasized that this mechanism does not apply to the youngest patients, oncology, hematology, transplant patients, or those participating in drug programs.
This also does not affect diagnostics or the operation of specialist clinics. Life-saving procedures are being performed as usual," the director added.
According to UCK data, the value of services performed beyond the contract in the period January–September 2025 exceeded PLN 270 million.
According to Małgorzata Pisarewicz , spokeswoman for Szpitale Pomorskie, overpayments at the company's facilities for the period from January to September amount to nearly PLN 110 million. Of this, approximately PLN 80 million relates to limited services, and PLN 30 million to unlimited services.
Overpayments also occur within the Basic Hospital Benefits Coverage (PSZ) system. If the patient's health condition is stable, some of the PSZ lump sum benefits are carried forward to the next settlement period. This applies, among other things, to hip and knee replacement procedures at the hospital in Wejherowo, Pisarewicz said.
In turn, the representative of the Specialist Hospital in Kościerzyna, Marta Lorek , assured that the facility is not planning any restrictions or postponements of planned procedures.
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The hospital is operating uninterrupted, and our priority remains ensuring patients have full access to medical services, said Marta Lorerk.
She added that the hospital has not received any new guidelines from the National Health Fund regarding restrictions on the provision of services above the limits and is performing the contract in accordance with the current agreement. The facility is monitoring the situation to avoid delays in treatment.
Meanwhile, on Monday, "Gazeta Wyborcza" reported on the situation in Silesia. The National Health Fund (NFZ) signed contract amendments with healthcare facilities for November and December. However, it turns out that these contracts are 20 percent smaller .
"The cuts concern selected areas for which hospitals did not have year-long contracts, including separately contracted services, such as endoprosthesis implantation surgeries," the newspaper reports.
He explains that the changes are to result from the National Health Fund's calculations, which took into account the so-called "underperformance." This is a situation when a hospital performs fewer services than the limit specified in the contract with the National Health Fund.
Now, he was supposed to subtract the "underperformance" for the period from January to September from the amount for the last two months of the year," we read.
At the end of October, the National Health Fund (NFZ) Headquarters announced that the Fund had received an additional PLN 3.5 billion from the state budget for settlements with medical facilities. The total subsidy for the National Health Fund in 2025 was PLN 31 billion.
The funds are to be allocated to financing contracts in the Silesian and Masovian Voivodeships, as well as for the needs of other regions – including payments for medicines in drug programmes, chemotherapy and unlimited overperformance.
Soon, in accordance with the decision of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the National Health Fund is to receive another PLN 1 billion from the bond issue.
The subsidy reduced this year's National Health Fund (NFZ) budget deficit to approximately PLN 10.5 billion. Previously, in mid-October, the Fund estimated that it was short by approximately PLN 14 billion to settle benefits. Following the disclosure of this information, the government decided to inject funds into the NFZ from the reserves of the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Finance.
According to forecasts by the Ministry of Health, the financial gap in the healthcare system in 2026 may amount to as much as PLN 23 billion.
Source: PAP/sko Updated: 03/11/2025 16:30
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