FEnIKS for POZ – application assessment criteria

Applications for the award of a grant under the project “Support for primary healthcare (POZ)”, implemented by the NFZ (National Health Fund) under measure FENX.06.01 of the programme FEnIKS, are assessed in two stages. The FEnIKS (European Funds for Infrastructure, Climate, Environment) assessment criteria for primary healthcare (POZ) comprise 18 mandatory criteria, verified on a “yes / no” basis, and ranking criteria under which a standard facility can score up to 40 points in total, and an entity affected by the September 2024 flood – up to an additional 10 points.

A facility's place on the ranking list is largely determined by two elements: provision of services under the entrusted budget for coordinated care (up to 10 pts) and the location of the place where services are provided (up to 16 pts after applying the criterion weight).

Later in the article, we discuss all the formal and substantive criteria and indicate which elements of the application can be deliberately planned to increase the facility's chances of funding.

FEnIKS for POZ – key information on the grant calls

The grant project “Support for primary healthcare (POZ)” (No FENX.06.01-IP.03-0001/23) is implemented by the National Health Fund (NFZ) on the basis of an agreement concluded with the Ministry of Health. The total value of the project is approximately PLN 1.25 billion, and support takes the form of non-repayable grants covering up to 100% of eligible costs – facilities do not provide an own contribution.

The funds can be used for medical and diagnostic equipment, ICT infrastructure and construction works that do not require a change in the cubic capacity of the building. In previous calls, the maximum grant amount depended on the number of patients on the active list and reached PLN 600,000, and for entities affected by the flood – approximately PLN 840,000.

The first call was held in 2024, and the second ran from 6 March to 7 April 2026 with an allocation of PLN 450 million. According to NFZ announcements, the third call is planned to be announced in Q4 2026. Facilities considering applying should therefore already analyse the criteria and estimate their potential score.

Current announcements and documentation are published on the project website run by the NFZ: feniks.nfz.gov.pl, and applications are submitted exclusively electronically via the application at granty.nfz.gov.pl.

The assessment rules are set out in the Grant Procedure and its annexes, including the list of grantee selection criteria. The discussion below is based on this list. Before submitting an application, the documentation applicable to the given call must always be verified, as individual provisions may be updated between calls.

How the application is assessed – two levels of criteria

The assessment system comprises two groups of criteria with different functions:

• mandatory (formal) criteria – assessed on a “yes / no” basis; failure to meet even one of them excludes the application from further assessment,
• ranking (substantive) criteria – scored; the total number of points determines the position on the ranking list and, consequently, the award of the grant within the available allocation.

The call is open, and the order in which applications are received is not a selection criterion – funding is decided solely by the score.

It is also important that some criteria are verified automatically on the basis of data from the NFZ IT systems (including the POZ contract, the active patient list and contracts for the entrusted budget for coordinated care), and some on the basis of the applicant's statements and declarations. Declarations made in the application are binding and are subject to verification during project implementation and in the durability period.

FEnIKS for POZ formal criteria – 18 mandatory conditions

The mandatory criteria can be arranged into four thematic groups. Each of them must be met in full.

Applicant status

An application may be submitted by a medical entity within the meaning of the Act on Medical Activity that has a contract with the NFZ for the provision of POZ services or undertakes to conclude one no later than on the date of signing the grant award agreement. Entries in public registers (the Register of Entities Performing Medical Activities, KRS, CEIDG), the absence of exclusion from the possibility of receiving public funds and the absence of bankruptcy or restructuring proceedings are verified.

A separate path for confirming eligibility applies to entities affected by the September 2024 flood, which present a certificate from a government or local government administration authority.

Grant value and physical scope of the project

Two criteria have a direct impact on the design of the budget:

• the value of the application may not exceed the maximum grant amount provided for the given category of grantees – the category is determined by the number of patients on the POZ doctor's active list according to NFZ data as at the first day of the month preceding the submission of the application,
• the physical scope of the project must fall within the catalogue of permissible items annexed to the Grant Procedure – items outside the catalogue are not eligible for financing.

This group also includes the requirement to correctly identify and assign expenditure from the point of view of its eligibility. Incorrect classification of costs or overstating the value of the application in relation to the facility's category results in a negative assessment of the application.

Consistency with the strategic documents of the healthcare system

The project must fit the strategic framework of the sector: the document “Zdrowa Przyszłość. Ramy Strategiczne Rozwoju Systemu Ochrony Zdrowia na lata 2021-2027” (Healthy Future: Strategic Framework for the Development of the Healthcare System 2021-2027), the national or regional Transformation Plans and the recommendations arising from the Healthcare Needs Maps published in the Ministry of Health analysis system. In practice, this means that the project must be justified in a way that corresponds to the health needs identified for the given region, including demographic and epidemiological data.

Horizontal principles and other conditions

The last group of mandatory criteria includes, among others:

• use of the infrastructure created to provide services financed from public funds, whereby any economic use may not exceed 20% of the infrastructure's resources or capacity on an annual basis,
• compliance with State aid rules, assessed on the basis of comprehensive information on the nature of the activity carried out (economic or non-economic),
• project durability, understood as the organisational and financial capacity to maintain its effects,
• compliance with the requirements of environmental protection law, the principle of sustainable development (including the “do no significant harm” principle – DNSH) and the resilience of the infrastructure to climate change,
• compliance with the principles of equal opportunities, social inclusion and non-discrimination, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the accessibility standard for POZ developed under the government programme “Dostępność Plus” (Accessibility Plus).

Formal criteria are sometimes treated as a purely technical element, but the experience of previous calls shows that it is at this stage that some applications are eliminated.

Substantive (ranking) criteria – what points are awarded for

A standard applicant can score a total of 40 points. The scoring structure is clearly asymmetric: two criteria account for 26 points, and all the others for 14. Understanding this proportion is the starting point for planning an application strategy.

Entrusted budget for coordinated care – up to 10 points

The highest-scoring criterion that depends on the facility's decision is the provision of services under the entrusted budget for coordinated care (BPOK). The scoring is as follows:

Verification is based on data from the NFZ IT system and the declaration attached to the application. A facility that does not provide coordinated care and does not declare its implementation receives no points under this criterion.

The declaration creates a real obligation – it should be preceded by a feasibility analysis covering access to specialist consultations, the coordinator function and the rules of settlement with the NFZ.

Location of the place where services are provided – a criterion with a weight of 2 (up to 16 points)

The criterion that rewards areas with limited access to POZ has a weight of 2, which makes it the highest-scoring element of the entire assessment. After applying the weight, facilities receive:

The assessment is based on data from the Healthcare Needs Maps, and the list of “white spots” is published together with the call documentation. The location of an existing facility cannot be changed for the purposes of the call, but entities operating several places of service provision in different municipalities may submit separate applications for each of them and in this way make use of the locations with the most favourable scores.

Comprehensiveness of guaranteed services – up to 2 points

The number of points depends on the scope of the contract concluded with the NFZ:

Telemedicine – up to 2 points

2 points are awarded to projects that include telemedicine activities, including telemedicine in home care or cooperation between POZ and outpatient specialist care or a hospital. Including such a component, for example teleconsultation equipment or remote patient monitoring solutions, is a relatively simple way of increasing the score, provided that it is reflected in the physical scope and the project description.

Environmental solutions – up to 3 points

1 point is awarded for each of the following used in the project:

• circular economy solutions,
• solutions that increase resilience and adaptation to climate change,
• elements improving energy efficiency or renewable energy sources.

Criteria worth 1 point each

The remaining ranking criteria allow 1 point to be scored for each:

• extending the scope of diagnostics – the project adapts the facility to provide new diagnostic services,
• implementation of preventive health programmes – the condition for awarding the point is attaching a Preventive Action Plan to the application,
• development of the facility's infrastructure, including its digitalisation,
• holding a current accreditation certificate in healthcare, verified against the list kept by the Centre for Monitoring Quality in Healthcare,
• solutions for people with special needs that go beyond the mandatory requirements of the accessibility standard for POZ,
• a plan of educational and information activities that improve staff competences in counteracting discrimination,
• complementarity of the project with other undertakings financed from EU, national or other sources.

Additional criterion for entities affected by the flood – up to 10 points

Facilities that suffered damage as a result of the September 2024 flood may score additional points for the comprehensiveness of the undertaking:

The most common mistakes made by applicants

Based on the experience of previous calls, the following recurring problems can be identified:

• an application value that does not match the grantee category resulting from the number of patients on the active list,
• including items outside the catalogue of the physical scope in the budget,
• allocating the entire budget solely to ICT equipment, whereas under the call rules server and network equipment, computers and software may not account for 100% of expenditure,
• no Preventive Action Plan despite declaring preventive activities, which results in the loss of a point,
• scoring declarations that are not reflected in the project description and the physical scope,
• incomplete information on State aid or accessibility, leading to requests for supplementary information or a negative assessment.

Working with an expert – the optimal strategy for preparing an application

The assessment of applications in the FEnIKS for POZ project is measurable, which is why it is worth starting the preparation of the application with a professional scoring simulation. An experienced adviser is able, before the call opens, to determine how many points the facility will score on the structural criteria and to indicate which criteria that depend on the content of the project can still be secured.

Expert support usually includes:

• verification of the eligibility of the entity and the grant category,
• selection of a physical scope consistent with the catalogue,
• preparation of the required annexes,
• analysis of the feasibility of the declaration concerning coordinated care,
• checking the consistency of the entire documentation before submission.

The detailed scope of such support is set out in the description of the grant advisory services provided by dotacje-online.pl.

The choice of the right place of service provision when the entity operates in several municipalities is also important, as is the decision whether to submit more than one application. These are strategic decisions that are best taken before the call is announced – once it has opened, the time available to prepare complete documentation is limited.

Summary

The FEnIKS for POZ assessment criteria form a transparent, two-tier system: 18 mandatory conditions determine whether the application is admitted to assessment, and the ranking criteria determine its order on the list and the award of the grant.

The location of the facility and involvement in coordinated care carry the greatest weight in points, but the final result is often decided by criteria worth single points, which can be deliberately designed in the content of the application.

The next call announced by the NFZ for Q4 2026 means that facilities currently have time to prepare a thorough application strategy. If you have any doubts about the score of a specific facility, please get in touch – we will carry out an individual analysis.Contact an expert