The president of the Agency for the Evaluation of Medical Technology and Tarification (AOTMiT) was cancelled due to disagreement over the creation of fresh posts for persons associated with the Law and Justice Party, reports DGP. Long-standing mobbing charges were utilized as an excuse for his dismissal.
According to our information, after the elections in the Ministry of Health, a fresh action plan of the Agency for the Evaluation of Medical Technology and Tarification (AOTMiT) was created. This unit, crucial for the wellness department, has an impact on the financing of almost the full wellness system.
The fresh concept of the AOTMiT structure was presented on 3 A4 pages and provided for the creation of 2 additional directorship positions and possibly fresh jobs. The aim was to make interior changes to architecture, which would let any politicians and officials to avoid political reorganization – this is due to the relation of respective sources on the basis of which we play the story.
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The president of Dr. Roman Topor-Smart did not agree to the proposed change in AOTMiT. According to 1 of the informants, erstwhile the president did not agree to script number 1, it was decided to apply script number two. According to this plan, the president was to be recalled, even though he was inactive in his word of office, making usage of allegations of inadequate duties. It was then planned to hire a fresh president who would agree to the proposed fresh structure. Screenplay number 3 has not been prepared. It is worth noting that it will besides be hard to implement script number 2. Although the resignation and announcement of a fresh competition with a 10-day deadline took place on the day of the first session of the Sejm, this did not escape the attention of the media and politicians. 3 informants claim that Marcin Martyniak, Deputy Minister of Health, was active in the work on the structure change. In the wellness department he supervised the department of analysis and strategy and the investment assessment department, besides serving as a typical of the Prime Minister on the Medical Fund Council. According to the AOTMIT changes plans to which we had access, fresh units were to analyse strategical projects, improvement instruments and the Medical Fund. Martyniak powerfully rejects the thesis about the relation of his professional plans with this organisation, stressing that if he completes his mission in the Ministry of wellness in the future, he will search challenges consistent not only with his competence and experience, but besides with interests which he emphasizes are not met by any of the functions in the AOTMiT.
However, our information shows that the changes in the agency were intended to supply employment for those who would lose their jobs in the Ministry of Health. 1 of our Law and Justice interlocutors points out that even the legal opinion has been drawn up to consider whether the wellness ministry can be considered to be a self-reliant entity. Why this interpretation? It appears that the applicant for the position of president of the AOTMiT must have at least 3 years of experience in ‘subsidiaries or supervised by the Minister liable for Health’. If the Ministry of wellness could be considered a body subject to this criterion, the candidate could be a individual from this resort. However, it would be politically hard to choose a suitable candidate today, unless the fresh coalition accepts it as a specialist," adds our informant. The competition for the position of president of AOTMiT is to be settled on 23 November, but the first names of candidates have already appeared. However, it is possible to cancel and transfer recruitment.
In addition, we hear that for years there have been allegations of mobbing in the agency, which have now been utilized as an argument in the appeal process. The deficiency of compliance between the president and Minister Katarzyna Sójka besides played an crucial role, which influenced the decision to release, as our interviewors say, as well as media specified as "Electoral" or Cowzdroi portals and the wellness Market.
Marcin Martyniak, Deputy Minister of Health, speaking for the DGP, explains that the appeal of the president of the AOTMiT was linked to “restrictions concerning the functioning of the unit, in peculiar as regards the performance and organisational culture, besides on the basis of worrying signals coming from within the organisation”.
However, the Ministry of wellness had formal cognition of this at least for a year. DGP announced in its publication that it had reached an email dated 23 November 2022, in which the authors asked whether the ministry had taken action to reduce mobbing, which was the origin of the workers' mass departure. In consequence to these reports, the ministry carried out inspections. Although there were irregularities, no 1 officially reported mobbing cases, says another interviewer from the Ministry of Health. The agency had no prior procedure or individual to study mobbing, and the audit recommendations prompted the ministry to introduce specified a procedure in July.
In addition, the staff policy of 2017–2023 was to be influenced by the statutory freezing of wage costs, which made the salaries of AOTMiT employees lower by mid-2023 than in another public institutions, which was uncompetitive compared to the private sector. Kamila Malinowska, manager of the AOTMiT President's office, emphasises this issue. For example, by June 2023, earnings ranged from PLN 4,000 gross as a junior specialist to PLN 13 1000 for the director. Compared to another wellness department agency, salaries at AOTMiT were importantly lower.
It is besides worth noting that AOTMiT is an entity that has a crucial impact on wellness care spending, analysing how much the budget must be allocated to medical personnel or pharmaceutical companies. This agency is crucial for decisions on the reimbursement of medicines and the cost of wellness benefits. Therefore, the dismissal of the president of the AOTMiT raised concerns that this could disrupt the preparation process for the evaluation of fresh anticancer drugs and advanced therapies that will gotta undergo EU assessments by the HTA group from January 2025.
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AOTMiT president dismissed due to refusal to cooperate with the Law and Justice on his position:
