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Marina Nikolova

Emergency staff serving only emergency cases works in the hospitals because of the 24-hour strike of doctors and dentists who protest against the bill on healthcare. The new law will lead to changes in the supply of drugs. It also provides a merger of hospitals, relocation of private practices of university doctors within the hospitals and change in the mode of operation of pharmacies.

The member of the administrative council of the Athens Medical Association Sotirios Kaliambakos told GRReporter that doctors are ready for a new 48-hour strike after the Parliament passes the bill. According to them, these new provisions will be detrimental to healthcare and will make doctors live in misery.  

"The main demand of the Panhellenic Medical Association is the bill on healthcare to be withdrawn as we have decided at the general meeting held on Saturday, January 15. We are against the founding of the health care services organization which will combine all insurance funds as it is not clear how it will change the labour relations of the medical staff. Furthermore, the new law facilitates merger of hospitals and further privatizing in healthcare. It has been already decided that this will happen to certain hospitals but has not been determined exactly how it will be implemented," said Kaliambakos. He added that the Athens Medical Association had no official position on the supply system but he was against it as it would allow  private companies to take the whole supply of drugs, organs and supplies.

The health insurance of IKA-Etham and its clinics, the farmers’ insurance funds OGA and OAEE – the health insurance fund of free professionals will be transferred to the national health care services organisation. The new organization will start working after six months and it will allow all insured to have equal access to health services everywhere, says the bill.

Doctors protest against big delays in payments from the insurance funds to those who practice in non-clinic offices. "Some health insurance funds delay the payments for year and a half which puts at risk the existence of small and medium private doctors' offices," explained Kaliambakos. According to the member of the administrative council of the Athens Medical Association, the protest is against another important regulation, namely the change in auxiliary medical staff’s labour relations. Their main jobs will be replaced and they will have limited labour rights - they will be able to sign contract for a period not shorter than six months and not longer than one year and will have limited insurance rights without having permanent positions.

15,000 dentists joined the strike, as the Hellenic Federation of dentists announced, also making accusation for being totally excluded from the bill compiling process. Dentists protest against the new tax measures that will lead to even more difficult situation for many of them, and for making their health insurance fund unimportant as it, anyway, does not function properly due to lack of staff.

Health Minister Andreas Loverdos said that the bill would be voted on until  February 15. "We hope that the Troika will assess the reforms made in the healthcare sector with regard to the Memorandum and the granting of credit to our country in March. This is the first date. Second, hospitals will have to equip their warehouses, pharmacies and accounting departments with computers in late March. They will also have accounting departments using digitized double entry so that they will know at the end of the month what they took and what they gave. The third phase is in late June and early July, when the dialogue will be completed and the merger of the hospitals will start," said the minister for Vima FM radio.
 
Loverdos said that the issue of Faculty of Medicine graduates should be resolved until then. He was indignant and said: "How can people accept the logic that the best high schools students that enter medical faculties and graduate after six years need another 12 years to take a specialty?" The Health Minister pointed out that the most serious problems in hospitals were administrative chaos, bad management or wastefulness and said also that corruption was concealing behind them.

According to the law, university doctors will have to move their private rooms in hospitals as of April 1, 2011. Until March 31 it should be clear how they will get a book with stamped receipt in triplicate from hospitals.

They announced from the Ministry that the political leadership of the Ministry of Health will meet with managers of 30 large hospitals in the country and managers of seven fields of the healthcare system on Friday, January 21.