In-depth topics
Analysis.
Longer analyses that go beyond a single figure: international comparisons, legislation, the mechanics of the doctor shortage and of medical training. Every claim links to its source.
01
Transparency and the register
What the state already knows, what it does not publish and what open pay data could look like.
4 analyses
The pay data act: what the state collects and what it will not show
Since 5 August 2026 the minister of health may require facilities to provide data on the pay of each person, with their PESEL and PWZ numbers. The act provides for no regular cycle, no publication and no penalty.0provisions requiring publicationPay limits for Polish health professionals: what the act passed by the Sejm contains
The act passed by the Sejm sets the maximum hourly and monthly pay of health professionals in facilities with a National Health Fund (NFZ) contract. It also introduces a limit of two full-time posts, a ban on pay calculated as a percentage of the contract, contracts with individuals only and a ban on NFZ-funded work for false certification.16×the minimum wage per month — the combined ceilingHow much hospital directors earn in Poland, and what a pay chimney is
The salary of a public hospital director is capped by the so-called chimney act and can be seen in the director’s asset declaration. Eight cases from 2024–2025 show that record totals come mainly from medical work, while a doctor’s contract is subject neither to a ceiling nor to a duty of disclosure.6×the average wage — the pay ceiling of a SPZOZ directorPatient rights — and where to report a breach
Patient rights, deadlines and complaint routes — each with a reference to the article of the act.
02
Public money and pay
The path of the public złoty: from the contribution and reimbursement to a contract that nobody adds up.
9 analyses
Following the public zloty
Four stops of the public zloty: the health contribution, the NFZ plan, pricing and settlement with the hospital, payment to the doctor. Totals are visible at each of them, but the total amount for one person is public at none.90–96%of the cost of services was covered by the contribution (2021–H1 2024)Money per patient in primary care: a public rate, an unknown result
The per-patient rate in primary health care is public to the grosz, and yet nobody knows how much of it the doctor keeps. The way the rate is constructed also affects whom it is better to examine on the spot and whom to refer onwards.Private visits: the longer the waiting list, the higher the price
A private visit to a specialist costs on average PLN 231.52, 2.6 times more than in 2015. There is more and more public money and the waiting list is not getting shorter — so those who can afford it pay to skip it.PLN 231.52average private specialist visit in 2025Pharmacies and prescriptions: public and private money
In 2025 the NFZ spent PLN 30 billion on reimbursement. Just under PLN 16 billion of this went through pharmacies; the rest went mainly to drug programmes and chemotherapy. Online prescription services run mostly on patients’ money, while public money was fraudulently obtained through prescriptions for compounded medicines.30.0PLN billion of NFZ reimbursement in 2025One doctor, two price lists: public and private healthcare
The same doctor works in a hospital with a National Health Fund contract and in a private practice. How public and private healthcare share costs and profits — in the US and in Poland — and why more public money does not shorten the queue but strengthens the second price list.×3.1the NFZ budget since 2015 — and a queue 43% longerCOVID-19: billions without a transparent account
In 2020–2022 almost PLN 190 billion was spent from the COVID-19 Response Fund, outside the Public Finance Act. The Minister of Health spent 29% of the amount allocated to tasks. According to the Supreme Audit Office (NIK), almost PLN 9 billion in COVID-19 bonuses was paid out without control by the Minister of Health or the NFZ.~190PLN billion spent by the COVID-19 FundDoctor-councillors: annual income public by law
The asset declarations of local councillors are a rare place where a doctor’s annual income from a practice, employment and contracts can be seen at once. We checked 183 declarations collected by the X user @tomo9000p against the originals: for 2025 the median income from work was about PLN 633,000, and one person in eight exceeded a million.632.6PLN thousand — median income from work for 2025 (113 checked declarations)The Supreme Medical Chamber and doctors’ contracts
What the medical self-government has adopted on contracts and what its president has said. The chamber defends the contract as a form of work, proposes a common limit on hours for employment and contracts, and opposes collecting data on the pay of individual doctors.On-call duty in a county hospital: who pays and how much
A hospital must have a doctor on the ward around the clock, however many patients it has. Yet the NFZ pays it a lump sum based on reported services, not on staffing hours — and when the money runs short, the difference stays with the hospital, in the county budget or in debt.8,760hours a year for one on-call post
03
Training and workforce
Limits, dropouts, empty residencies, emigration and an ageing workforce — why there are many places, yet a shortage of doctors and nurses.
8 analyses
Why Poland is short of doctors
There are more places at medical schools and in specialist training, yet patients wait 4.2 months on average for treatment. Six reasons why the one does not rule out the other.62%of specialist training places empty in autumn 2025Doctors from the East: three routes into the profession with a non-EU diploma
A doctor with a non-EU diploma works in Poland after recognition of the diploma, after the LEW examination, or on the basis of a decision of the minister of health. How these routes work and what the Polish language requirement has changed.Cutting medical school places: Poland has done it before
Between 1987 and 2003 admissions to medicine fell by at least 65%, and the pre-cut level returned only after 31–36 years. The gap is visible in the register of doctors. France and Portugal went through the same — and took between a dozen and twenty years to make up for it.2,090full-time places in medical school in 2003, against more than 6,000 in 1987Who drops out of medical school in Poland, and who leaves the country
One in five Poles who start medicine does not finish on time, and most of those who drop out do so in the first year. After graduation, the vast majority of graduates work in Poland.1 in 5students who start do not finish on timeEnglish Division: who Poland’s medical schools are really training
One in six places in medicine in Poland is in a programme taught in a foreign language — a separate, fee-paying pool in which 91% of students are foreigners. One year after graduation, fewer than 1% of foreign graduates in medical sciences work in Poland.17%of places in medicine are degree programmes taught in a foreign languageAesthetic medicine reserved for doctors: does it take hours away from public care?
Procedures with botulinum toxin, fillers or lasers may be performed only by doctors with a certificate or the relevant specialisation. Does this shift their hours outside the NFZ? Nobody measures it.Poland’s harshest penalty for doctors is almost never imposed
In 2010–2025 Polish medical courts revoked the licence to practise of 20 doctors with final effect. An admonition, a reprimand and a fine make up 86% of the penalties imposed at first instance in 2020–2025.20doctors finally stripped of the right to practise in 2010–2025Nursing in Poland: the age ladder
The average nurse in Poland is 55 years old, and in 2023 one in three registered nurses was over 60. There are 5.9 working nurses per 1,000 population, against an EU average of 8.5.55years — the average age of a nurse
04
Poland compared with other countries
How other systems pay doctors and what they publish — the neighbours, Taiwan, Canada — and what follows for Poland.
4 analyses
Doctors’ pay: Poland compared with its neighbours
How Czechia, Germany, Austria and Sweden pay their doctors and what is publicly known about that pay. We compare pay with a single OECD measure: the ratio to the average wage in each country.2.9times the average wage — a salaried specialist in Poland (OECD)How Taiwan’s healthcare system works — and what it makes public
A single payer, a global budget and point-based pricing of services. Patients get a receipt for every visit and hospitals’ financial reports are public — the earnings of individual doctors are not.Canada: when the government imposes terms on doctors by law
Quebec passed a 13.04% cut in doctors’ fees and fines of up to CAD 500,000 a day in a single night. The fines were repealed after 48 days, and the cut before it took effect.13.04%cut in doctors’ fees legislated in QuebecArtificial intelligence in medicine: where things stand in 2026
Language models identify diseases accurately from a description of symptoms, robots operate more and more often, and Polish teams are building their own models. Yet what has been approved for treating patients is mainly narrow algorithms — the brake is certification.
Editorial position
Public amounts, protected names.
We call on the state to publish, every quarter, the total pay of each person working in facilities with a National Health Fund (NFZ) contract — summed across all their workplaces, under a permanent identifier instead of a name.