Establishing a healthcare provider step by step

That is why, before you decide to open a clinic, a hospital, or a private medical practice, it is worth finding out what formal steps you need to take to do so.

Below we present, step by step, how to establish a healthcare provider in Poland.

Formalising your business activity. Although it may seem obvious, it is worth starting with the fact that, in order to take any further legal steps connected with registering a healthcare provider, you first need to set up a business entity that will carry out this activity.

Any entrepreneur can be a healthcare provider, which means that medical activity can be conducted in the form of a commercial company, a sole proprietorship, or even a civil law partnership.

The path for registering the business will correspond to the type of activity being conducted.

Meeting the conditions set out in the Medical Activity Act. Once you have a registered business entity through which you will conduct medical activity, you need to make sure that you meet all the necessary conditions arising from the Medical Activity Act.

What are these conditions?

Premises .

Finding premises for a healthcare provider can be quite a challenge, because you must have rooms and equipment that meet spatial, sanitary, and installation requirements and that are suited to the type of activity you carry out.

This requirement will not apply to you only if you decide to conduct telemedicine activity.

Medical devices .

Before you start providing services, you must also stock up on medical devices (e.g. latex gloves, surgical masks, disinfectant solutions) that meet general safety requirements.

Staff .

There is no clinic without staff providing health services, and this can only be done by people who practice a medical profession and meet the relevant health requirements.

Insurance .

Every healthcare provider is required to take out a civil liability insurance policy.

The policy should cover damage arising from the provision, or the unlawful failure to provide, health services, and the amount of the sum insured depends on the type of medical activity conducted.

Submitting an application for a 14-digit REGON number. Before you enter your entity into the Register of Entities Performing Medical Activity (RPWDL), you must obtain a 14-digit REGON identification number.

Obtaining it is mandatory for all healthcare providers.

The application is submitted to the Central Statistical Office (GUS) using one of two available forms: RG-OP for legal persons (e.g. a limited liability or joint-stock company, an association registered in the National Court Register) or organisational units without legal personality (e.g. a civil law, limited, or general partnership); RG-OF for activity subject to entry in the CEIDG business register (when you want to open a medical facility at the same address as your company's registered office) or when you conduct activity that is not subject to entry in the CEIDG (e.g. you run an individual farm).

The form can be submitted electronically; all you need is a trusted profile (profil zaufany) or a qualified electronic signature.

The form is completed with information such as the start date of the activity, the anticipated number of people employed in the entity, and the name of the healthcare provider.

This name must be different from the name of the entity that operates the healthcare provider (e.g. the company).

Importantly, without an assigned 14-digit REGON number, it will not be possible to apply for entry in the RPWDL.

Determining the organisational structure and drawing up the organisational rules. The final step before obtaining entry in the RPWDL is to establish the internal structure of the healthcare provider. You need to determine, among other things, which organisational units it will consist of (e.g. which outpatient clinics will be available), who will formally hold the position of clinic manager, the hours during which the entity will operate, and in what form it will provide services.

The organisational rules are a mandatory document required by the provisions of the Medical Activity Act, and the required elements of such rules are set out in detail in that very act.

Entry in the RPWDL. You will obtain the status of a healthcare provider only once you secure entry in the RPWDL.

The RPWDL is a publicly available register of data on all entities that provide health services in Poland, and it is maintained by the territorially competent voivode.

Fortunately, to obtain entry you do not have to go to the voivodeship office; you can submit the application electronically through the system at https://rpwdl.ezdrowie.gov.pl/ , signing it with a trusted or qualified signature.

Remember also to pay for the application; the fee amounts to 10% of the average monthly salary in the enterprise sector, excluding profit-share bonus payments, for the previous year, as announced by the President of GUS in the official gazette Monitor Polski.

Currently (February 2023) this is an amount of PLN 666.

If your application does not require supplementation, the voivode will, after verifying the submitted documents, make the entry in the RPWDL and issue a certificate of entry. In that case, the entry should appear in the register within 30 days of the application being received, and once the entry is made you can begin your medical activity.

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