Basin public hospital workers plan to mobilize to respond to the imminent adoption of the bill Ministry of Health to create a branded NAID “Marianna V. Vardinogianni – Elpida Children’s Cancer Center”. The Hagia Sophia Children’s Hospital Workers Union and the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers announced a complete halt on the day the bill was passed – most likely next Wednesday – and a march to Parliament in an attempt, they stress, “to prevent the privatization of the Children’s Oncology Department.”

The bill, which adds provisions to modernize the law on organ donation and transplantation, was passed yesterday by a majority vote in the parliament’s social affairs committee. The items that practically monopolized the discussion in the commissions concerned the transformation of the oncology department of the Children’s Hospital of St. Sophia into the Children’s Oncology Center NPDI, with the transfer of oncology departments from the Children’s Hospitals to it. The opposition spoke of a policy of “transferring the ESY filet to private individuals and effectively abolishing universal, equal and free care.”

Public hospital workers. Yesterday the bill was adopted by a majority in the parliamentary committee on social issues.

Health Minister Thanos Plyuris spoke of “criticism at an ideological level”, saying that nothing would change regarding the treatment of patients and stressing that there would be no payment for their treatment from patients. He also promised that nothing will change in terms of the center’s funding status compared to what it is today, and there will be no change in the labor relations of the oncology department staff who will be “transferred” from the children’s hospitals to the center. According to the minister, the transformation of the unit into NIDP will increase the center’s flexibility by attracting donations, cooperating with foreign experts, hiring specialized staff and raising funds for clinical research.

With regard to transplantation and criticism of the Greek Transplant Organisation’s underfunding, the minister promised that an amount of between 1.5 and 2 million euros per year would be allocated for the EOM and referred to a ministerial decision that would explain how this would happen. . Finally, he mentioned that there would be legal and technical improvements regarding the recruitment of EOM scientific staff, including local coordinators, and their participation in their selection procedures. As a reminder, the bill removed provisions for the EOM to hire local transplant coordinators to be housed in hospitals, on the grounds that ASEP would not be involved in the process.