“Unlike other ministries, there is no official time here. And the minister will need to manage day-to-day crises,” outgoing health minister Thanos Pluris said at the healthcare portfolio handover ceremony.

Describing his tenure as “a terrifying experience” as he described it, the former minister, in a difficult phase of the pandemic, when the foundations of health care reform were being laid at the same time, wished the current minister, Professor of Pulmonology, Ms. Anastasia Kotanidou, good luck, and added, that “the ministry always has surprises in its daily life.

“Maybe I need the luck you wished me this month. Fortunately, it’s only a month and it will pass,” he emphasized from Ms. Kotanidou’s side and noted: “I hope that nothing extraordinary will happen, because then the minister and deputy minister will be sure that I will call them for help.” . “.

Outgoing Deputy Minister Mina Gaga gave a “vote of confidence” to Ms Kotanidou, noting that she is intimately familiar with the system and has extensive administrative experience as she leads the largest autonomous NHS unit in the country’s largest hospital. “I am sure that he will have good control and everything will go well,” she stressed.