Doctor earned 1,633 zł per hour at loss-making hospital as ministry proposes pay caps

Ostróda hospital's record hourly rate

In April 2026, a doctor working under a civil-law contract at the county hospital in Ostróda, northern Poland, received 91,462.26 zł for 56 hours of work, yielding an hourly rate of 1,633.25 zł. The figure emerged from a dataset of the five highest contract doctor payouts in the first months of 2026, obtained by county councilor Piotr Kołodziejski after a year-long battle for public information. The hospital had previously ignored multiple administrative court rulings ordering disclosure of staff earnings. In February the top earner had received 100,865.22 zł for 117 hours (862 zł/h), and in March 92,433.21 zł for 109 hours (848 zł/h). The April payout, however, set a new peak.

A shocking picture emerges from the data. Earnings in a county hospital with huge debts are horrendous. For 56 hours of work in April, a doctor in a publicly funded, heavily indebted facility earns 91,462.26 zł, that's over 1,600 zł per hour! And how is it supposed to be good?

The hospital, Szpital w Ostródzie S.A., recorded a loss of nearly 12 million zł in 2025, and together with unresolved losses from earlier years its accumulated deficit exceeds 17 million zł. President Bernadeta Hordejuk maintains the facility operates lawfully and that no final court judgment compels disclosure of both doctors' names and pay amounts.

A trail of million-złoty payouts

The Ostróda case is the latest in a series of revelations about extreme doctor earnings in Polish public hospitals. The same doctor had previously worked in Braniewo, where he earned close to 1.8 million zł in 2024. Internal records suggested his working day sometimes stretched to 48, 62, or even 72 hours. The prosecutor's office is investigating; no charges have been filed. After leaving Braniewo, the doctor took up posts in Nidzica and Ostróda. The Nidzica hospital disclosed that from May 2025 to the end of June 2026 it paid him 669,720 zł gross. In 2024 and 2025, four doctors there each received over a million złoty, with the highest single payout reaching 1,709,360 zł. The former Braniewo hospital director, Bożena Duduś, now works as economic director in Ostróda, hired in March 2025 without a competitive procedure.

Ministry proposes caps and exceptions

On 28 July 2026, the health ministry published a draft amendment to the law on publicly funded healthcare, introducing statutory limits on working time and pay for medical staff. The basic hourly rate for contract work could not exceed one-twentieth of the minimum wage, currently about 240 zł gross. Total monthly remuneration from all public sources would be capped at 16 times the minimum wage, roughly 76,896 zł. The maximum working time is set at two full-time equivalents, around 320 hours per month. The rules would apply to doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other health professionals in both public and private sectors if they combine the two; those working exclusively commercially are exempt.

The draft carves out exceptions for senior staff. Heads of departments, transplant coordinators, and other managerial roles could earn up to 12 times the minimum wage per full-time post (about 57,672 zł), though the overall monthly ceiling of 76,896 zł still applies. Deputy health minister Tomasz Maciejewski and department director Maciej Karaszewski argued that such roles carry extra administrative duties and should be well rewarded to attract candidates.

A head of department should not be working 320 hours a month and should be well remunerated so that they want to hold the position.

The bill also bans setting pay as a percentage of procedure value, a practice that automatically raises doctor incomes when service prices are adjusted. The ministry says the caps will not directly cut NFZ spending but will redirect more funds to hospital operations and debt reduction.

Hospitals move to electronic time tracking

Even before the national legislation, some county authorities began tightening controls. In Wadowice, board member Sebastian Mlak requested urgent deployment of an electronic working-time registration system, estimated to cost around 100,000 zł. He expects resistance from doctors.

There will probably be those who throw in their papers because they won't want to clock in, but in my opinion it's a necessity to rule out potential pathologies. It cannot be that a doctor 'works' in three different places at the same time and collects pay everywhere. This is public money and there must be transparency in spending it.

Myślenice county is also revisiting plans for electronic time monitoring, with starosta Józef Tomal saying he does not want the local hospital to become the subject of similar media reports.

Transparency battle

The Ostróda data came to light only after persistent pressure from councilor Kołodziejski and media inquiries. The hospital had argued that salary information was confidential, despite several administrative court rulings ordering disclosure. The standoff highlights a broader tension over transparency of public funds in healthcare, as million-złoty contracts coexist with heavily indebted facilities.