Health Ministry: 25 percent of Polish ambulances "understaffed"

Medical rescuers are fighting for higher wages and say no to extremely hard working conditions. They have launched a nationwide protest on September 1. Some of them have not showed up at work at all or taken the shortest shifts possible. The paramedics say they will take part in a huge demonstration of health care workers which has been scheduled to take place on September 11 in Warsaw.

The Ministry of Health spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz told TVN24 on Monday was receiving two updates daily from the Crisis Management Centre in the Polish ambulance fleet. "As we speak, we have 12 understaffed ambulances in Warsaw, so the scale has decreased. Of course, this doesn't mean it cannot increase again any day now," he said.

"On a national scale, we have a constant - 25 percent of ambulances have a "not ready" status. Let's not forget that for patients travel time is crucial. Despite these 25 percent of understaffed ambulances, the travel time haven't changed. The travel time is still 14 minutes, and I promise and reassure the patients that ambulances will arrive on time," he stressed.

"This conflict, and protest, is not a conflict with the Health Ministry. This is a conflict between paramedics and employers. Naturally, we're trying to ease this conflict, to put it to an end. We're offering our role here as a sort of a mediator in these talks, but at the same time we're trying to increase spending all the time," Andrusiewicz said.

He added that the government "has increased health care spending by 600 million zlotys in recent years". He promised the ministers would discuss increasing the daily ambulance operational cost. "This move on our part is meant to ease some of the protests, but certainly negotiations with employers should iron out these differences," he said.

"We've urged the employers that this conflict should be eased and all disputes should be settled quickly. The employers promised to hold meetings. We meet with paramedics on a regular basis, as we work together on a medical rescue bill, about self-governance," he added.

Doctor Łukasz Jankowski, chairman of the Regional Medical Chamber in Warsaw, shared his view on the matter with TVN24 on Monday.

"I wouldn't call what is happening in medical rescue a protest, but rather a natural consequence of how badly has medical rescue system been planned in recent years. Let me remind that most paramedics who visit patients at home have not been offered permanent contract, but the so-called junk contracts or single-person businesses. Those paramedics haven't agreed to this willingly, but were often forced to carry out their work on such terms. They worked excessively, they worked during the pandemic, long hours in uniforms. Not only their work is not being appreciated, but also conditions are being imposed on them, which make their work impossible to do," he said.

He also said that the "paramedics" have said frankly that they couldn't work any longer. "And comments by politicians, unethical in my view, appear in the public sphere, taking advantage of the decency of these people," he said. "They try to intimidate the rescuers by telling them 'not to leave patients' beds unattended'. Let me reassure you, ladies and gentlemen, that paramedics do not leave patients' beds, they are with the patients all the time, and in return we've been given a system in which companies providing medical rescue, those single-person businesses, simply aren't able to continue their work," he added.

He informed that, to his best knowledge, if the talks were ongoing, they weren't satisfactory for the paramedics. "I feel that the government have no idea how to fix this system and throw around slogans on professional ethics, and certain phrases which are probably meant to intimidate medical rescuers," he said.

"We fully support the protest of paramedics, or maybe not the protest, but the demands. What they are trying to say guarantees the whole system will function right. If the state-funded medical rescue fails, the health of all of us will too. We shouldn't discuss whether paramedics could be replaced by soldiers or by anyone else. Soon we will be discussing whether policemen could be replaced by plumbers. This is absurd," he added.

He also said that "not a single time" has the Ministry of Health responded to the demands.