Polecenie Ministra Zdrowia w sprawie tzw. „dodatków covidowych” jako źródło roszczeń pracowniczych wobec podmiotu leczniczego – problemy wybrane

By an order dated September 4, 2020, the Minister of Health obligated the National Health Fund to provide additional funds to medical facilities where treatments were provided to so-called “covid patients,” with the intention of paying additional financial benefits to the medical staff. In fulfilment of the indicated order, the regional branches of the National Health Fund concluded agreements with their subordinate medical facilities regulating the procedures for payment of socalled “covid allowances” to medical personnel participating in the provision of health services and having direct contact with patients with suspected or infected SARS-CoV-2 virus. In the actual practice of the judiciary, a number of divergences can be noted concerning, among other issues, the qualification of contracts concluded by the National Health Fund with medical facilities, the nature of the claim for payment of the covid allowance, or the possibility of applying mechanisms of proportional relativization of the sum of the allowance paid in relation to certain objectivized criteria. In the author’s opinion, it has become necessary to make some remarks on the above subject, directed at systematizing the legal discourse, highlighting the proper lines of argumentation and, consequently, harmonizing the jurisprudence of common courts.