Doctor repaid 500k zł to Warsaw hospital; it was sent back. Opposition conducts inspection as two criminal probes launch

Background

Dawid Kacprzyk, a doctor without a completed specialisation, worked 3,976 hours in 2025 as coordinator of the emergency department at Warsaw's Southern Hospital (Szpital Południowy) while serving as a Civic Coalition (KO) district councillor. His 2025 earnings reached about 1.6 million złoty. Portal Zero.pl first revealed that politicians from the ruling KO were allegedly treated in a VIP lounge without waiting in line, with comprehensive tests performed almost immediately after registration.

The money trail

On 15 June 2026, Kacprzyk transferred 500,000 złoty to the hospital as a salary adjustment. The hospital returned the money on 16 June, citing a lack of legal grounds to book it. The move triggered outrage. PiS MP Anna Kwiecień said during a parliamentary inspection on 23 June that it appeared someone could "defraud" money, then try to "soften the error", only to see the funds "come back to the account of the one who admitted guilt".

That is what really outrages Poles.

Investigations

The Warsaw Regional Prosecutor's Office launched two separate investigations on 22 June. The first concerns fraud leading to losses of 558,558.70 złoty through unreliable invoices for working time. The second, broader probe covers mismanagement by hospital authorities: violations of triage rules, contract awards, invoice verification, and payouts for excessive working hours. Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said the office would examine whether Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski had prior knowledge of the irregularities.

Political fallout

Trzaskowski dismissed the hospital's management and supervisory board and appointed a new board. On 23 June he announced that politicians no longer sit on the supervisory boards of any municipal medical companies in Warsaw. The city council will hold a vote of confidence and discharge for Trzaskowski on Thursday 26 June. The Left party has decided to vote against; the opposition holds 24 votes against KO's 36, making the outcome likely but exposing political pressure. Deputy mayor Renata Kaznowska faces opposition calls for her resignation.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk acknowledged on 23 June that there are more such cases, citing preliminary Supreme Audit Office findings of pathologies in doctors' working hours and pay spikes. He mentioned a 120-hour continuous shift and said he would ask the justice and health ministers for recommendations to prevent queue-jumping by the well-connected.

We have, for example, 488 hours in one voivodeship ambulance station. In a month almost 17 hours a day, every day. And it is paid... the record holder is 120 hours of duty non-stop. It seems this also affects patient safety, to put it delicately.

Media and expert reaction

According to the Media Monitoring Institute, the topic generated over a billion potential media contacts in a week. Gazeta Wyborcza journalist Wojciech Czuchnowski published photos of the VIP lounge showing a hospital bed, arguing it was not merely a political salon. Zero.pl's Patryk Słowik countered that the room existed and was handed over to Kacprzyk. An expert noted that negative emotions currently concentrate on those directly involved, a classic mechanism protecting the party leader.

One can speak of a classic mechanism of protecting the party leader, in which responsibility at the first stage of a crisis focuses on people closer to the matter itself.