The merger of two county hospitals (St. Luke’s Hospital in Bolesławiec and the Multispecialist Hospital – SP ZOZ in Zgorzelec) is to be the largest medical merger in Lower Silesia. The merger is presented as an opportunity for residents of the region to gain better access to specialists and improved diagnostics. The idea of merging the hospitals has been under consideration for several months.
“We have a couple of ideas that should increase the hospital’s development momentum. One of them is the idea of merging the hospital in Bolesławiec with the hospital in Zgorzelec. The hospital would then become one of the largest hospitals in Lower Silesia,” said Piotr Roman at a City Council session in October 2025.
The hospital created through the merger would employ nearly 3,000 people, and its annual budget would amount to up to PLN 1 billion. Its headquarters, meanwhile, would be located in the capital of Lower Silesia. The facility would operate under the name “Multispecialist Healthcare Team in Wrocław – independent public healthcare facility.”
“At the beginning of this year, the Civic Coalition in Zgorzelec organized a meeting in Zgorzelec with hospital representatives and county head Artur Bieliński to clarify the issue of establishing the headquarters of the merged facilities,” Major Arkadiusz Szczęsny, the initiator of the talks, told istotne.pl. “I’ll put it this way: the Zgorzelec county head claimed that no sinecure would be created in Wrocław, that there would be just one desk with a female clerk who would answer telephone calls and recruit doctors for the hospital. The doctor who was present at the meeting was surprised that the county head said this. In an earlier telephone conversation with me, he said there would be eleven or twelve positions. The question is: who will work there? Who are these cushy jobs for?” the major asks.
A Civic Coalition councillor from Bolesławiec who attended the meeting in Zgorzelec also makes no secret of his concern about whether establishing the headquarters is justified.
“After speaking with the Zgorzelec county head, I became somewhat doubtful,” says Radosław Palczewski. “I heard that there would be jobs there (at the headquarters in Wrocław – ed.), that ten or perhaps even more people could be employed there; this is not yet known. And it would be a recruitment office. What is this? Another sinecure intended to give someone something—that is for sure. Will it give anything to the hospital? If the director is physically to be in Bolesławiec or Zgorzelec, and where the director is not present, the deputy director is to be present, then the question arises: what will be in Wrocław? I learned informally that it would be a large recruitment office intended to recruit doctors for us. The idea itself is not stupid. It can be done, but why not outsource it to professional recruiters? When I need it, I use that office, and when I do not need it, I do not use it. I do not create the costs of employing staff. They certainly will not be working for the national minimum wage,” adds the county councillor from Bolesławiec.
Radosław Palczewski believes that only a well-executed merger of the hospitals could bring benefits.
“However, I am not convinced that merging with the hospital in Zgorzelec will bring us such great benefits as is being claimed,” the councillor explains. “The very idea of developing the hospital through a merger is close to me, but… First, we know nothing about the hospital in Zgorzelec. In fact, we have no concept at all—not even an outline of a concept—for the merger, because what was presented to us at the social council was, I would say, a collection of ideas. We have promises that nothing will get worse. The problem is that these promises are being made by people who will not always be able to keep them, because they are elected every five years and may change, just like the county head,” Radosław Palczewski explains.
Councillors from both the Zgorzelec and Bolesławiec counties will soon decide on the merger of the hospitals.