Greek Health Min.: Incentives will be given to doctors – Recruitment and strengthening of the National Health Service

Among other things, the Minister of Health Michalis Chrysochoidis mentions the improved salaries of doctors but also the incentives for young doctors to stay and join the NHS in an interview with state news agency AMNA. It also explains how the new recruitments to the NHS will be done immediately and digitally and reveals which patients will have priority for operations after the implementation of the electronic platform, in which the waiting list for surgeries will be entered.

Recruitment to the NHS

The Minister of Health, answering a question about the gaps in scientific staff in the NHS, spoke of a total of 10,000 recruitments in Health during the current four years and emphasizes that the doctors who serve in the NHS are already being financially supported and will be further strengthened. It also reveals that additional incentives will be given to young doctors with the aim of not leaving or returning to the country. In particular, it states “the income of the medical and nursing staff was enhanced in many ways, while increases in the salaries of the National Health Service employees are also planned, as announced by the Government, for the entire public sector. In addition, the stay of young doctors in Greece, and, consequently, in the NHS, is of vital importance. It is our priority to provide incentives, and not only financial ones, which will strengthen the mood for their stay”.

He himself, referring to the recruitments, reveals that they will be done digitally and through direct procedures, but not at the expense of meritocracy. As he typically emphasized: “There will be a Council per Health region and per specialty, which will be in charge of all candidate evaluation procedures. At the same time, the deadlines for the submission and evaluation of supporting documents will be reduced. These are procedures that will be carried out with meritorious, objective criteria, taking into account both the formal qualifications and the outcome of the candidate’s interview. Finally, the entire above process will be simplified with the use of digital media, as both the submission of supporting documents and the evaluation will be done electronically.”

Online waiting list

When asked about the implementation of the provision of the Ministry of Health, regarding the creation of an electronic platform, in which the waiting list for surgeries will be registered, Mr. Chrysochoidis points out that “the operation of the platform is expected by the end of the year. Thus, we will also be able to know the number of our fellow citizens who are waiting to carry out their planned intervention. Patients who have experienced this wait are going to get their turn and be operated on immediately. There will be further announcements in a short period of time.”

The Minister of Health emphasized that the “public nature of the NHS does not change”, but explains that synergies are needed with the private sector “without any burden for the patient, because what is important is the service of the citizens”

Priorities

Speaking about priorities, M. Chrysochoidis points out the ministry’s interventions in those diseases, which are responsible for death or disability, stressing that “we aim to reduce disability, death and pain for countless patients and their families”.

The beginning was made with the bill for the creation of 18 Advanced Care Units for vascular and stroke, he says and adds that yesterday the management and treatment of Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease was also discussed in the Council of Ministers, where for the first time issues concerning caregivers are regulated . “We intend to include in the Greek legal order the “power of attorney for care and care” for persons suffering from dementia.”

Michalis Chrysochoidis points out that he put “rules” in the administrations of the hospitals from the beginning and explains how they will operate from the new year. “Their evaluation will be a statutory procedure, which will judge them on the basis of defined objectives, from the beginning of their tenure. The restructuring of the way of administration will start to be implemented from the beginning of the new year and will be one of the procedures that will lead the NHS to the next day”, it states.

With regard to the changes being launched in relevant services he spoke of “new scientific potential, able, together with the administrations, to carry out the task of improving health services for citizens”.

Pharmaceuticals

Finally, the Minister of Health, regarding drug shortages in our country, says that “the Electronic System will soon be implemented subject of Monitoring the Trafficking of Medicines (H.S.Pa.Di.F.), to monitor and deal with the shortages, while from 1/1/25, Greece will also join the Single European Policy for the Evaluation of Medical Technologies and Medicines, with the aim of implementing a single assessment method for both health technologies and medicines”

In fact, he emphasizes that patients and those hospitalized in the NHS have direct and absolute access to the new innovative treatments and technologies. “There is no medicine, or procedure, which is applied in Europe, and then is not also applied in Greece”, he concluded.