Medics from National Stadium accuse interior ministry hospital of misallocating public funds

A nurse anesthetist (who requested anonymity), who had worked at the field hospital at the National Stadium from October 2020, told tvn24.pl that medics from all regions had been quitting their permanent jobs to work at this hospital. The facility had offered "a bit higher wages" than other hospitals, but in the end, as our source stressed, it did not pay out covid bonuses to employees.

The nurse told us that the hospital offered a number of explanations, one being that the facility had not received the money. Furthermore, some employees were asked to sign amendments dividing the wages into two halves between the MSWiA hospital and the National Health Fund (NFZ). "I found a law firm which examined the case, demanded the hospital to pay, and warned it notify the prosecutor's office. We haven't received any response from the hospital for four months in total," she added.

Furthermore, 60 members of medical staff sent the MSWiA hospital demands for payment, while nine persons undersigned the notification addressed to the prosecutor's office.

The said notification, seen by tvn24.pl, was filed in early September. Its authors stressed that the filed hospital at the National Stadium had not been a separate entity or medical facility, but a branch of the MSWiA hospital in Warsaw, which had been responsible for recruiting medical personnel.

Furthermore, the notification mentioned that the published job offers not only mentioned hourly wages, but also clearly stated that a bonus in the amount of 100% of a monthly salary, financed by the NFZ, would be added.

The bonuses were the health minister's idea. He ordered the chief of the NFZ to grant additional remuneration for medics fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the notification sent to the prosecutor's office, its authors also stressed that despite receiving the funds for covid bonuses and declaring in job offers to pay them out, the MSWiA hospital still haven't paid the money to the medical personnel.

The authors also claim the MSWiA hospital misallocated the public funds it had received, as the money was never paid to the medical staff who worked at the temporary hospital. Moreover, the hospital is said to have failed to inform the NFZ about paying the money out, which was its duty.

According to a list of medical facilities which received covid bonuses, published in March by cowzdrowiu.pl portal, the MSWiA hospital got 68.9 million zlotys.

The tvn24.pl portal asked the MSWiA hospital press office about the issue. Patient Service Department chief Iwona Kania said in a response that the hospital had no information regarding any complaints filed by any employees of the field hospital.

"The hospital did not receive any separate money from the National Health Fund to be paid out as covid bonuses for personnel hired at the field hospital, and therefore a situation in which the hospital did not pay these people could not have happened. All contrary information and insinuations are false," Kania said.

According to her, the hospital "did not declare paying out covid bonuses in job offers for the temporary hospital", while "the persons who worked at the temporary hospital during the pandemic were receiving remuneration as agreed in the contract they had signed with the hospital".

"The wages mentioned in the contracts reflected the fact that the personnel would work only with patients infected with coronavirus," she stressed, adding that the employees had entered into agreement with the hospital and the recruitment process voluntarily.