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Marina Nikolova

The program for cost reductions in the public sector is running in the healthcare system too. The Minister Andreas Loverdos announced that the number of clinics will be reduced from 1900 to 1600, and the administrations of some hospitals will merge and their number will decrease from 139 to 80. But the Minister insists on further mergers. During the Congress on Shaping the Future of Healthcare in Greece Loverdos said the Ministry’s decisions will be announced on the 1^st of July and the bill is scheduled to be voted by the Parliament on the 15^th of July. The health map of Greece, which is still processed, shows that the country has a huge infrastructure in the health sector but its capacity is not used, while taxpayers are paying for its maintenance This should change, said the Minister of Health and noted the paradox that exists in the country and namely that there are twice as many doctors per capita compared with the member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, while the medical staff and nurses are three times less than in the member states of the organization.

Minister Loverdos told about his experience from his meetings with Ministers of Health in other European countries and said that Greece is the only country where health care is associated necessarily with the maintenance of hospitals. Minister Loverdos stressed that the focus should be mainly on preventive measures to keep the health of the Greeks, on health feeding, sports playing and regular examinations.

One of the implemented reforms is the digitization of hospital accounting. At present, 80% of them are connected with the Ministry electronically and enter the data into computers, which cost the state only 15,000 euros. According to a recent survey, 30% of the doctors who were offered to be supplied with computers and programs said they do not want, while another 30% said they would participate in such program, but are not quite sure, said Kyriakos Souliotis - Secretary General of the Health Insurance Fund for Civil Servants.

One of the main problems of the health system is the poor hospital administration and that the increased spending comes from the excessive use of new technologies in the treatment of patients, which in many cases is unnecessary, as well as from the excessive consumption of medicines, Loverdos said. Greeks rank in the first places among Europeans in consumption of antibiotics and anti-diabetics. "There is no time and money, but it is needed to implement the reforms quickly and to save money. What has not been done for the past 20 years, we have to do for ten months," said Loverdos. In this regard, one of the main objectives of the Ministry of Health is to reduce the cost of medicines of health insurance funds by 1.4 billion euros. Loverdos explained that the costs of medicines and drugs for 2010 are being paid currently and it is hoped that the suppliers would receive their money to 2012. One of the major errors in the supply system and concerning the extremely high prices of medications and drugs the state was paying has been due to the fact that the Ministry of Economy has paid suppliers every five years during which time their costs and bills, and the interest on the orders for state hospitals were accumulating. As George Veliotes from the Hellenic Association of Insurance Companies noted, the biggest problems facing the health systems of developed countries are spending, new diseases, new technologies, which are very expensive, and new treatment methods, but also the treatment of chronic diseases as the population lives longer. In this regard, Veliotes noted that the family GP practice is not common in Greece and the efforts should be directed there. Furthermore, the issue of the one-day stay clinics was discussed at the Congress too.

Another big issue is related to generic medicines and the control over their production, quality and use. In Greece, 90% of generic medicines are manufactured by local pharmaceutical companies, but the percentage of patients who use them is very low. However, the market for generic drugs is growing steadily, said Angela Spatharou from McKinsey in London. Generic medicines are like the original ones, but they are introduced on the market after the patent of the originals expires and the main advantage of generic medicines is that they have the same quality but are much cheaper and affordable, unlike the originals. Angela Spatharou suggested the idea of developing medical tourism in Greece, noting that neighbouring Turkey is already far ahead in this field with customers mostly from the Middle East. Patients come in Greece for treatment of impotence, for haemodialysis and cosmetic surgery, but the hospitals and clinics need to obtain quality assurance certificates and to offer more specialized services such as foreign languages speaking staff. And finally, medical tourism should be approached as a business and marketing tools need to be applied.