Health minister Adonis Georgiadis in a television interview Wednesday called for the private sector to play a greater role in providing public health care services, claiming this will lead to more savings.
When staff at a public hospital confronted the minister as to why the government was not investing in public services and infrastructure and instead was outsourcing medical services to private clinics, Mr. Georgiadis said: “public systems are costing us more than private ones”.
Mr. Georgiadis’s comments were made to Mega television and followed what can only be described as a situation of near chaos at Greece’s biggest hospital, Evangelismos, which is located in central Athens. The hospital’s only remaining computerized tomography (CT) scanner broke down last Friday. Patients, even emergency cases, had to be transported to other public hospitals or private clinics to get scanned, and then brought back to Evangelismos. The hospital’s other CT scanner had broken down months ago.
The hospital was forced to outsource medical imaging, increasing costs and making much harder the lives of both doctors and patients, said Evangelismos doctor Spiros Dritsas, during an interview to E television (link in Greek). According to Mr. Dritsas, during periods of accident and emergency duty, the hospital receives 1,700 patients a day.
The situation at Evangelismos hospital came to light after a photograph depicting patients packed like sardines in a recovery ward at the Evangelismos hospital, caused a rage in social and then mainstream media. The photograph, showing at least 12 patients lying on beds and stretchers, with hardly any room between them, was published early Wednesday on the Facebook page of the association of Evangelismos resident doctors.
A Facebook caption said: “29.10.13 – second day of general accident and emergency duty without CT [computerized tomography] scanners. Patients are being thrown around between hospitals like human sacks, to find the necessary specialists (Attiko & Sismanoglio [hospitals] -> Evangelismos) and for examinations (Evangelismos -> Ippokratio -> Evangelismos). EKAB [the ambulance service] is sinking from hundreds of [patient] transfers, while patients toy with their luck for many torturous hours until they are seen to.”
When Mr. Georgiadis was asked by Mega television reporters what he made of the Evangelismos doctors’ photograph, he said: “I don’t know, of course, if they took it now. They should have taken it many months ago, as it is a daily phenomenon at the big hospitals [on accident and emergency duty], where patients are concentrated.”
He also said that one of the CT scanners would be repaired before the end of the day Wednesday, and that a second one would be bought soon, using European Union funds. Staff at Evangelismos hospital on Thursday told ThePressProject International that the CT scanner had indeed been repaired.
These past few days, there has been a growing rift between the government and representatives of both public and private sector bodies, as continuous cuts in funding and staff take a toll on public health care. Greece last July agreed with its international lenders, the ECB, the EU and the IMF, to drastically reduce spending on health care. Mr. Georgiadis is implementing this policy. At the same time, the World Health Organization is assisting Mr. Georgiadis in helping those vulnerable groups most affected by the cuts.
But Mr. Georgiadis’s call for the private sector to play a greater role, may prove problematic. According to a report published on Ekathimerini.com, Greece's private health care clinics on Tuesday announced that that they would stop accepting patients insured by the country's umbrella public health care organization EOPYY, because it owes them €800 million.
The trouble does not stop there. The country might soon run out of doctors to provide care. On Wednesday, the Athens Medical Association (ISA) in a statement said that 6.872 doctors from Athens had emigrated in the last five years, seeking better paid work abroad.
This echoes data made public last week at a press conference hosted by the association of hospital doctors (OENGE), which was widely reported in the Greek press: between 2010 and 2012, over 7,000 young doctors have left Greece. An OENGE representative also said that there is a severe lack of doctors in public hospitals, which constitutes “a time bomb for public health”.
The issue even made headlines in neighbouring Turkey, where health minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu said: “nearly 7,000 Greek doctors are searching for jobs overseas, and I need them. Our doors are open to those 7,000 doctors from Greece.”
As Mr. Georgiadis, known for his fervent patriotism, put it during his interview to Mega television, “the fatherland, doesn’t have something to give, now”. “No one is having a good time today,” he said.