On April 23, an extraordinary session of the County Council was convened. During the session, the council considered a resolution concerning the appointment of representatives to the social council of the “Bolesławiec–Zgorzelec” Multispecialty Healthcare Complex, based in Wrocław.

Under the Act on Medical Activity, the social council is an advisory and consultative body for the hospital director, and its members include representatives of the county council. Until April 23, the social council of the hospital in Bolesławiec had 15 members. It was customary in Bolesławiec County for it to include representatives appointed by the mayors of five municipalities and the city president, as well as councillors from all political groups.

Under the agreement concluded between Bolesławiec and Zgorzelec counties, the Bolesławiec County Council appoints seven people to the social council of the new (merged) hospital, another seven are appointed by Zgorzelec County, and one representative is appointed by the Lower Silesian Voivode.

In Bolesławiec County, the ruling coalition appointed the following members to the social council of the new hospital:

  • Krzysztof Basiak (from Tomasz Gabrysiak’s Forum Powiatu list)
  • Tomasz Gabrysiak
  • Patryk Hałka (Law and Justice)
  • Sebastian Fijałkowski (Law and Justice)
  • Piotr Roman
  • Alina Zarembecka (Impuls Lokalny in coalition with Piotr Roman)
  • Andrzej Żuk (Piotr Roman’s list)

During the session, councillor Tomasz Matyjewicz nominated councillor Radosław Palczewski, a former member of the council at St. Luke’s Hospital. However, the motion was not put to a vote because, despite being justified twice, Council Chairman Maciej Małkowski (Impuls Lokalny in coalition with Piotr Roman) did not submit it for voting. In protest, councillors from the Civic Coalition did not participate in the vote.

More on the hospital merger in the article: Bolesławiec Hospital Will Disappear After the Merger. We Reached the Draft Merger Plan for the Hospitals in Bolesławiec and Zgorzelec

Radosław Palczewski’s comment

I did not expect to be selected. However, I wanted the entire process to be transparent and conducted in a way that the county council could comment on. What is symptomatic of all matters related to the merger of the hospitals in Bolesławiec and Zgorzelec is that each time we make decisions on important issues during extraordinary sessions—convened quickly and without publicity. As if the County Board had something to hide.

Exactly one week from now, next Thursday, we have an ordinary council session. The election of social council members could have waited until the ordinary session, but, as we know, there will be an audience, cameras and guests there, so it is more difficult to construct, so to speak, far-fetched justifications.

Such a low level of transparency in matters related to the hospital merger does not serve the process. It weakens the entire structure and raises questions about interests. As for the conduct of the session itself—well, I believe the rules were violated. In elections involving people, if there are more candidates than positions, each candidate should be voted on separately. The candidate who receives more votes is elected. Here, the method used was for us to vote on everyone at once.

That is not how it should be done. If, for example, I am opposed to one candidate but agree with the others, I cannot vote correctly when voting on the list.

As for why we did not participate in the vote, it was a protest against breaking the rules. The motion submitted by councillor Tomasz Matyjewicz was not considered. It could have been rejected in a vote, but it cannot simply be bypassed because it is inconvenient for those in power. Today, the social council is no longer representative of our county; apart from the city, it has no representatives of the municipalities that often contributed funding to the hospital. It has no opposition representatives—even if only for the sake of transparency. It is a shame, because hospital matters used to bring people together across political divisions. Today, that no longer seems to be the case.