NIK: The ills of the hospital in Łask

The competition for the 20-year lease of the hospital was won in 2012. Non-public Health Care Center Dialysis from Sosnowiec (seven years later it changed its name and moved its headquarters to Łask). In turn, the local ZOZ leased medical equipment and facilities to the company for five years. In return, the company undertook, among other things, to provide health care services at least to the extent that they had been provided at the hospital up to the date of the agreement, as well as to launch other therapeutic activities at the facility and to invest in its infrastructure.

The NIK's audit shows that local authorities had limited ability to enforce the provisions of this contract. All because, although it covered such a long period, it did not provide for appropriate contractual penalties. The situation changed only in 2018 when the parties signed an annex introducing penalties for failing to meet the deadlines for capital expenditures, but they covered only some of the tasks the company was to perform. The annex also included a provision inconsistent with National Health Fund procedures, making investment outlays contingent on whether the National Health Fund would sign a contract with the company. As a result, the contract, even with annexes, did not fully protect the interests of the district's residents. The current district authorities have pledged to hold talks with the company on the subject.

The problems at the Lask hospital were already brought to the attention of the NIK during its previous inspection, conducted in 2017. At the time, it turned out that not only did the starosty fail to respond to signals of labor rights violations at the Łask hospital, but it did not even check whether the company was fulfilling the investments declared in the tender offer. Indeed, in the contract it pledged to spend nearly PLN 43 million over 20 years, but by the end of the first quarter of 2017 it had completed work for only PLN 7.4 million (17%). In turn, it spent a...