Today: July 1st last chance talks. Will the only maternity ward in the Bieszczady Mountains survive?

• On Tuesday, at 3 p.m., a last-chance meeting of the Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna with representatives of the district office in Lesko and the management of the hospital in this city has been scheduled
• - We will fight for our obstetrics and gynecology ward and convince the minister about the need for changes in the financing of wards, such as in ours in Lesko - says the deputy mayor of Lesko, Wiesław Kuzio
• The gynecology and obstetrics department generated a loss of PLN 5.8 million in 2024. Too few children are born there
• The hospital in Lesko is in debt for PLN 111 million, partly due to loans taken out in parabanks. The local government expects help from the Ministry of Health
• Earlier, the district board did not agree with the position of ministerial experts who proposed reducing the number of positions in the hospital to 100.
• According to the district authorities, "the National Health Fund should pay for readiness regardless of the number of births" in those places where access to the maternity ward is difficult due to geographical reasons.
• We will save the maternity ward in Lesko, because the network of maternity wards must ensure accessibility within a specified distance and a specified travel time - announced the Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna in an interview for the website money.pl

- We are going to Warsaw in two coaches - said Wiesław Kuzio, deputy mayor of Lesko, to Rynek Zdrowia before noon. - We hope to find out what the Ministry of Health has to offer us.

- We will fight for our obstetrics and gynecology ward and convince the minister about the need for changes in the financing of gynecology and obstetrics wards such as ours in Lesko. This concerns areas where the number of births is low, but due to the geographical criterion, i.e. long travel time, the maternity ward should remain - said the deputy mayor.

A group of about 40 people, mainly hospital employees, among whom are also councillors and residents of the Lesko district, want to picket in front of the Ministry of Health during the meeting.

As we have already written, the hospital is in debt for PLN 111 million. This was caused, among other things, by loans in parabanks taken out by the previous hospital management. On Monday, June 23, the hospital account had PLN 50,000, and the hospital is unable to pay the salaries in full. The county authorities are demanding help from the Ministry of Health.

According to the director of the hospital in Lesko, Małgorzata Bryndza, who has been managing the hospital since November 1, 2024, and members of the district board - stopping the maternity ward is the only solution for the hospital to survive the next few months.

The obstetrics and gynecology department is being closed

The gynecology and obstetrics ward generated a loss of PLN 5.8 million in 2024. Too few children are being born there. In 2024, 198 children were born in the maternity ward in Lesko, which is much less than the break-even point for the obstetrics and gynecology ward, which is set at 400 births.

On June 23, after heated discussions, the Lesko County Council voted on a draft resolution to amend the county hospital statute. The hospital statute removes the activity of running an obstetrics and gynecology ward and a neonatal ward.

As confirmed today by Deputy Starosta Wiesław Kusio , as of July 1, the functioning of the neonatal/children's ward at the District Hospital in Lesko has been suspended - for 4 months and the gynecology and obstetrics ward for 2 months.

The suspended and possibly soon to be liquidated gynecology and obstetrics ward is the last maternity ward in the Bieszczady Mountains. Several years ago, such wards were liquidated in hospitals in Sanok and Ustrzyki Dolne.

The meeting at the Ministry of Health, to which the local government authorities of the Lesko district are going, was announced by the Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna, reacting in a post on the X platform to the text in the Health Market in which we described the financial situation of the hospital in Lesko.

She also recalled that when representatives of the local government and the hospital in Lesko visited her in 2024, she asked experts from the ministerial team for health care reform for advisory assistance for the hospital. After several online meetings, the experts assessed the cooperation critically.

- There was no one there to make decisions - we heard from one of them.

County Office: pay for readiness

Experts from the ministerial team, after analyzing the hospital's financial situation, decided that it would be necessary to reduce employment in the hospital in Lesko by 100 positions. The reductions were to affect many departments, some of them were to result from overstaffing.

The starosty absolutely did not agree to such a reduction in positions in a hospital employing over 300 full-time employees. The hospital is the largest employer in the Lesko district.

- Where we are able to save money, we could talk about 5-10 full-time positions, but not 100 full-time positions - Wojciech Stelmach summed up those analyses.

Ultimately, approximately 30 employees will leave the hospital and retire.

As Deputy District Governor Wiesław Kuzio, who was on his way to a meeting with the Minister of Health Izabela Leszczyna, argues, in such places where the maternity ward is not rented, but must remain in place to ensure the safety of the woman giving birth and the child - "the National Health Fund should pay for the readiness regardless of the number of births".

- A similar principle applies to emergency medical services, where you also pay for readiness, and financing does not depend on the number of ambulance calls - says the deputy mayor.

What will the Minister of Health do?

- The fewer deliveries, the greater the risk for a woman giving birth. Despite this, we will save Lesko, because the network of maternity wards must ensure accessibility within a specified distance and a specified travel time - announced Leszczyna in an interview for the portal money.pl

As she pointed out, the national consultant for gynaecology and obstetrics, prof. Ewa Wender-Ożegowska and prof. Wanda Różańska-Walędziak are developing a map of maternity wards with different levels of reference.

- If the journey takes longer than 30 minutes, such a maternity ward must remain. But if the local government decides that it wants to leave only the gynaecology ward without the obstetrics ward - due to the low number of deliveries, then such a hospital must have a 24-hour midwife on duty and a special ambulance - said Minister Izabela Leszczyna.

This statement by the Minister of Health may suggest the direction of the proposals that will be made by the Ministry of Health to ensure care for women giving birth from the Bieszczady Mountains, i.e. the Sanok, Lesko and Bieszczady counties.

As Deputy Minister of Health Jerzy Szafranowicz told Rynek Zdrowia, the meeting will discuss, among other things, the study prepared by the hospital and the founding body.

Asked about the solutions included in the draft bill on hospital reform, which the government is debating today, and which the hospital in Lesko could potentially use after the bill is passed, the deputy minister pointed to the possibility of, among other things, consolidating hospitals from the Sanok, Lesko and Bieszczady counties. The draft bill also includes proposals to transform 24-hour wards into one-day planned wards, but in such a way that they will remain in the network. However, the flat fee will then be 50%.

As the deputy minister admitted, the currently considered part of the draft bill on hospital reform does not include financing for aid solutions. He did, however, indicate that certain solutions related to the repair of the hospital in Lesko will be presented at the meeting.

Copyrighted material - reprint rules are specified in the regulations .