WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s health minister has been dismissed, the prime minister said on Tuesday, after he provoked outrage by revealing details of a prescription a doctor who appeared in a TV news report critical of the health ministry had written for himself.
The episode has been problematic for ruling nationalists Law and Justice (PiS) as they prepare for elections scheduled for Oct 15, and the dismissal of Adam Niedzielski, a former head of Poland’s National Health Fund (NFZ), had been widely expected.
“This is the election campaign period, and the election campaign period is a specific time when we must be particularly sensitive to any mistakes,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference.
Niedzielski had angered doctors and reportedly many in his own party with the revelation about a doctor who had appeared in a TV news report flagging problems issuing prescriptions for certain painkillers after changes made by the health ministry.
Following the incident, Poland’s Supreme Medical Chamber told the prime minister that doctors had lost confidence in Niedzielski and also informed prosecutors that he may have committed a crime.
Niedzileski will be replaced by Katarzyna Sojka, a PiS lawmaker and doctor.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Editing by Jan Harvey)
