In June, only 19,000 children were born in Poland, according to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS). This is 2,700 fewer children than the previous year. The total number of births over the past 12 months is 259,700 - the lowest since World War II.
Hospital Reform. Will the Ministry of Health Close Small Maternity Wards?
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has submitted for public consultation a draft amendment to the Act on Healthcare Services Financed from Public Funds and certain other acts. As part of the hospital reform, the ministry has proposed that local governments phase out the smallest maternity wards. The preliminary criterion for maintaining a maternity ward is around 400 births per year. Today, one-third of Polish maternity wards do not meet this criterion.
One of the maternity wards slated for closure is located in the hospital in Nowe Miasto Lubawskie, where on average, one child is born every two days.
With such a small number of births, the ward is simply very deficit-driven. The network of maternity wards operating in Poland does not fit the current demographic conditions and birth rates
- said Michał Kamiński, director of the County Hospital in Nowe Miasto Lubawskie, in an interview with tvn24.pl.
Small Maternity Wards to Be Closed? The Ministry of Health Explains
The Ministry of Health believes that the changes regarding maternity wards will provide women with better conditions in exchange for the need to give birth in a neighboring city.
So that local governments sit down at the table and agree on which county it is worth establishing a well-equipped, excellent maternity ward with access to perinatal anesthesia
- said Minister Izabela Leszczyna to tvn24.pl.
