Will the Military Medical Academy be restored? Former deputy minister of the Ministry of National Defense: by force and too late
The Military Medical Academy in Łódź is to be reactivated. The bill was sent to the list of legislative works of the Council of Ministers. – The Ministry of National Defense wants to build a military medical university without having its own hospital or clinic – says Marcin Ociepa, PiS MP, former deputy minister of the Ministry of Defense.
In the second quarter of 2025, the Council of Ministers is to accept the bill on the creation of the Military Medical Academy in Łódź. As we read on the website of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, the university is ultimately to educate soldiers to perform medical professions (doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, paramedics, pharmacists and psychologists).
The Academy is to be built on the basis of the Military Center for Medical Education in Łódź. According to the description of the bill: “based on property and own personnel resources and other medical universities and medical entities with which it will conclude appropriate agreements.”
The content of the project itself shows that “the Academy can educate medical staff for the needs of foreign troops.” The main medical center, in which postgraduate education is to be implemented, will be the Military Medical Institute – the National Research Institute in Warsaw.
Reactivation of the Military Medical University in Łódź. PiS MP comments
Tomasz Stankiewicz, “Wprost”: What do you think about the restoration of the Military Medical University of Łódź?
Marcin Ociepa, PiS MP: We very urgently need to accelerate the process of training medical staff in Poland – including military doctors. In the face of the current international situation, it is worth supporting all initiatives that lead to increasing admission limits to medical directions.
The Medical Academy itself in Łódź, however, is not enough – first, because it is not enough, and secondly – that it is too late. I also know preliminary plans to create a new Medical Academy that cause anxiety. They show that it would be a de facto extension of the Military Medical Institute, i.e. the hospital at ul. Szaserów in Warsaw.
If the plan really assumes that the Academy in Łódź will be created by “sucked in” the staff and the use of the hospital infrastructure to Szaserów, then you should ask yourself – what is the point of creating this institution in Łódź?
I believe that a better solution would be to expand the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw and give it the status of a medical university. This is where the right staff and infrastructure are located. However, in Łódź, as well as in several other cities, you could sign agreements with civilian universities and educate doctors with a military specialty there – as part of cooperation with existing academic centers.
The Ministry of National Defense reaches for the resources of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, because he has nothing to offer?
The draft act on restoration in Łódź also assumes the education of doctors for the needs of the Ministry of the Interior (i.e. for the needs of the Police, Border Guard, State Protection Service, State Fire Service). Does the connection of the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Interior and Administration when running universities cause threats?
I am an enthusiast of cooperation between the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Interior and Administration in many areas, because both deportations deal with broadly understood security. However, in the case of Łódź, the situation looks different – the Ministry of National Defense reaches for the resources of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, because it does not have its own hospital there, while the Ministry of Interior and Administration has such a hospital. It shows how absurd this situation is.
The Ministry of National Defense wants to build a military medical university without having their own hospital or clinic, and you can’t educate doctors without clinical facilities. Since in Warsaw we have a developed military medical institute, which has the status of a state research institute, let’s develop this center.
In Łódź, however, let’s put on cooperation with a civil university. Then you can reach for the Clinic of the Ministry of Interior and Administration as support – but do not build a new structure by force, which in practice will weaken and “cannibalized” the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw.
Today, the military health service is broken, which is why in 2023 the idea of establishing medical troops appeared, which aims to gather under one command of all medics in the armed forces. At the beginning of 2025 in an interview with “Wprost” The deputy head of the Ministry of Mon. In the mid -2023, President Andrzej Duda brought a bill to the Sejm regarding actions in the event of an external security threat in which there was a provision regarding the establishment of medical troops. Why did the United Right government not establish medical troops for 8 years?
During the rule of the United Right, we radically increased the expenditure on the military health service. We developed the Military Medical Institute at ul. Szaserów in Warsaw, as well as revitalized and expanded many other facilities. In total, the Ministry of National Defense has about 50 hospitals, clinics and various types of military health care under its management.
The issue of naming – whether we are talking about medical army or the department of the Military Health Service – is a secondary matter. If our successors want to develop this type of armed forces, then please – we will support them in this.
