Since more than half of adults have registered with their personal doctor, this year in our country world family doctor day. To date, 54.5% of citizens over 16 years of age in our country are registered with a personal doctor, and in particular 4,834,530 people. In the age group over 70, the percentage of those registered is 72.9%. Net personal doctors consists of 3427 doctors of which 2,243 people work in public primary health care structures and 1,184 in private ones.

Until August 2022, when registration in the new system “opened”, a personal doctor – then called a family doctor – had only 16% of the population. AND as mentioned in “K” by Mr. Evangelos Frangoulis, general practitioner and general practitioner Hellenic Academy of General/Family Medicine and Primary Health Care: “I find it harder to go from 16% to 54% than from 54% to 100% in this case.”

This requires convincing private doctors, mainly in Attica, to participate in the system. It is estimated that 50% of eligible basin citizens have a personal physician. The rest cannot register because there are no doctors available. The assessment – “wish” – that the number of people joining the system will gradually increase, has not been confirmed. Over the past six months, only a few dozen have been added to the number of personal doctors.

Many citizens who want to register with the new system, especially in Attica, cannot because there are no private doctors available.

Introducing new incentives to recruit doctors, or even “penalties” for those who ultimately refuse to join the network of personal doctors, although the intentions Ministry of Health, “froze” in the pre-election period. Universal coverage of the population by a personal doctor will be one of the “bets” of the next four years. Mr. Frangulis points out: “I believe that there should be measures for the proper implementation of the institution. There are patients who are registered through pharmacies, whom we have never seen in our practice.

Indicators of the quality of services provided, provided for by the relevant institutional framework, should be applied. I also believe that doctors need to be given additional incentives. For example, in small islands, personal physicians in public primary health care under the current system are paid less than their counterparts in Athens. This is because the population they are supposed to cover does not exceed 1,500 people, which is the limit above which compensation is provided in addition to their regular salary for their participation in the network of personal doctors. And finally, there should be “disincentives” for private doctors.

If they don’t want to join the system, let them not interfere at all,” he notes. It is noted that today the system of electronic prescription for tests and medicines, covering them EOPYYis open to physicians whether they have a contract with EOPYY (in any form) or not.

This year, World Family Doctor Day, as May 19 was named, made it clear that family doctors are the “heart of healthcare”: they are usually the first point of contact for patients seeking medical care, they can take a holistic approach to healthcare and be Patient advocates, their health care navigators and their health mentors.