The EU funds give Polish medical care institutions an opportunity for development and competitiveness. Provided the funds are used effectively. The very fact of having specialist medical equipment does not stand for a better access to health services. As much as one third of hospitals which bought specialist equipment did not use it as planned in the financial aid requests. The number of services provided in reality was smaller (sometimes much smaller) than forecasted.
- The existing hospital equipment was used and obsolete – said Piotr Wasilewski about the significance of the EU support for the Polish health care.
Medical equipment
As a result of the currently applied purchase procedures, there is a shortage of medical equipment in some towns and cities and in others it is in excess. In many institutions the EU projects were developed carelessly, for instance, there were too few qualified employees entitled to operate the equipment. Many of the doctor’s offices and laboratories were also not properly adjusted, although the financing could also be used for their adjustment. That was the reason of delays in delivery, installation and launch of the new equipment. As a consequence, the modern and specialist devices remained unused for long months and instead of expected improvement, the financial condition of some hospitals got even worse, since they had to pay e.g. for the equipment depreciation.
In six health care units the inspectors questioned also the manner of using the machines: fees for diagnostic tests were charged there, although the equipment financed from the EU funds could only be used to render services as part of the contract with the National Health Fund.
According to NIK, effective regulations do not support coordinated policy concerning the provision of medical equipment to hospitals. The province governments for instance cannot monitor the number and type of examinations carried out in private or public entities subject e.g. to communes. It makes it difficult to assess the needs of people living in a given province.
The NIK audit confirmed that local governments did not make reliable analyses in their areas, nor did they have valid data concerning location of the medical equipment. These data, gathered by the Health Information Systems Centre for the Ministry of Health varied from the data obtained by NIK inspectors directly from the governors[1].
An effective solution would be permanent cooperation of entities conducting investments financed from the EU in a given area, including joint investment planning based on the health needs analysis. This is especially important in connection with Poland obtaining funds in the new budgetary perspective of the EU for 2014-2020.
[1] Using the auditors’ comments, first provisions of law have been implemented which are to improve credibility of data on the time and the number of persons waiting for tests.
