Polish specialists say funding has not kept pace with the growing number of patients eligible for therapy
Patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis who qualify for publicly funded biological therapies increasingly cannot begin treatment, as hospitals run short of money. Under Poland’s reimbursement system, hospitals receive fixed annual budgets for specialised drug programmes.
Pressure on these budgets keeps mounting. Patients already on biological therapies continue treatment while new patients qualify each year, yet annual funding has risen only marginally — straining specialist centres.
“We are currently facing serious funding problems in rheumatology drug programmes,” Prof Zbigniew Żuber, president of the Polish Society of Rheumatology, told Euractiv.
Patients are now diagnosed earlier and referred when biological therapies offer the greatest benefit, he said. “The paradox is that the number of patients requiring treatment is growing faster than the available funding,” he added.
