WARSAW, 16 March 2018 – The National Health Fund (NFZ) and the World Bank will commence implementing integrated care in primary healthcare in Poland, according to an agreement signed on Friday. World Bank experts will monitor and evaluate the implementation of a pilot project that will cover 300,000 patients countrywide, contributing to better quality and greater scope of services offered by the Polish healthcare system.
Integrated care is intended to increase the efficiency of cooperation in basic healthcare among medical professionals, such as coordinators, nurses, physical therapists, family doctors and specialists. It also includes decentralizing tasks to ensure an efficient information flow between the medical team, the patient, and his/her family.
“The objective of our actions is to ensure more efficient use of existing resources in the healthcare system and better organization of the system, to the benefit of both patients and medical personnel, says Carlos Piñerúa, World Bank’s Country Manager for Poland and Baltic States. “We believe, that integrated care will help increase the efficiency of Polish healthcare, as was the case in other countries which apply this type of care, such as the UK, Canada, Germany, and Spain. The World Bank will share the best international practices in this scope with Poland.”
In recent years, the NFZ has developed three models of integrated care for different tiers of Poland’s healthcare system, in cooperation with the World Bank. In 2018, the NFZ and the Ministry of Health will test the POZ+ model, which covers primary healthcare, as a pilot project in various regions in Poland. Experts from the World Bank will monitor the implementation of this model and provide advice on potential changes or improvements.
“The objective of the pilot project is to build and test how the new scope of actions for the basic healthcare team are going to impact the health and satisfaction of patients, as well as the satisfaction of medical personnel. The pilot will also allow us to find out what else needs to be done to improve the quality of basic healthcare. With this knowledge we hope effectively implement this model countrywide,” says Andrzej Jacyna, acting President of the NFZ.
According to the World Bank, reforms in to Poland’s healthcare system are necessary for the country to continue to develop to the benefit of the entire society - especially in light of an aging population and increasing expectations among people. This is why healthcare is one of the pillars of World Bank’s new country partnership framework for Poland for 2018-2023, which is currently in the consultation phase. The World Bank’s Board of Directors will make a decision on this strategy by June 2018.
