Undoubtedly, the health care system in Poland requires systemic reform. It is a very complex process, connected with the necessity to introduce many changes consisting in the introduction of transformation, deregulation and an inverted pyramid of services according to the assumptions of the concept developed in the Ministry of Health. The elements of this concept are inseparable and should take into account the current challenges facing health care in Poland, requiring modern infrastructure, transfer of new technologies and detailed mapping of patients' needs. It is puzzling why these assumptions lack a place for the institution of public-private partnership. This institution has been known in Poland since 2005. Despite many attempts to popularise it it does not work in the area of health care in Poland. The author of undertakes in the study the issues concerning the understanding of public-private partnership, the mode of selecting a private partner. She refers at to solutions functioning in other countries. It also shows the areas in which public-private partnership could be applied in the health care system. The last part of the study concerns the implementation of the County Hospital in Żywiec.