“You’re alone. Twenty-four hours a day. One day after another. With your phone always in your pocket, stuck near the hospital. You can’t even go outside for a coffee, because the hospital might call you and you have to go immediately. You don’t dare to leave the island for a while, we don’t discuss it, you can’t take a vacation, you can’t even get sick Even if they expedite procedures to find a mover to replace you, it will take several days, so you are obliged by the medical code ethics, even the sick, to help. This is what the priest’s house looks like here on Lemnos. And I’ll tell you something that I also tell my colleagues. My mother lives in Athens. If they take me tomorrow and say: “You know, your mother died”, I won’t be able to go to the funeral.” Thus Michalis Skopelitis describes in “K”.director of NSY the anesthesiologist is the only one who works in hospital/health center of Lemnos– the working conditions in which he has been since February 1, 2022, when he was appointed to this position. From February to April, i.e. within 90 days, he completed 79 consecutive shifts, from May to June 50 consecutive shifts and so on. Since September 12, he has been on duty continuously and will continue this way until October 19.

As the sole anesthesiologist, he is responsible for administering anesthesia and anesthetic control for surgical procedures, administering anesthesia for endoscopy, providing emergency care in outpatient clinics if necessary, transporting to the airport, and possibly intubating patients until they are delivered. by plane to another location. hospitalas was done in some cases in pandemic.

On September 16, after almost eight months of overtime, he set the scientific and ethical limits to this very difficult situation by telling the administration in writing that he would no longer administer anesthesia on a regular basis, thus implementing the Law on the Safe Administration of Anesthesia (GAS 1044/ B/25-11-1997). According to this law, for each patient undergoing any method of anesthesia, the constant presence of an anesthesiologist is required, and only another anesthesiologist should replace him. “If there is only one anesthesiologist in the morning for an operation like an inguinal hernia or a laparoscopic cholecystectomy, if something else comes up in the hospital, who will go?” And if the anesthesiologist goes to the emergency room, who will stay in the operating room for anesthesia monitoring of the patient? emphasizes Mr. Skopelitis.

Despite the difficult working conditions and a written statement from the hospital administration, Michalis Skopelitis is accused of “refusing to perform his duties.”

In apology

The administration, despite his written statement, reacted normally to the schedule of the next operations, which the anesthetist did not cover, as a result of which he was summoned to apologize with charges of disciplinary offenses of “unjustified abstinence from duty” and “refusal to provide services.” The Hellenic Society of Anesthesiologists, in its letter to the political leadership of the Ministry of Health and the administration of the 2nd sanitary district, speaks of an unacceptable, illegal and dangerous for the safety of patients transfer by the hospital administration. As he states, among other things, “it is dangerous to administer anesthesia for routine operations by the only anesthesiologist on the island, who is also called in case of emergency.” The Greek Federation of Associations of Hospital Physicians also calls for an end to any prosecution of the anesthetist, emphasizing that “the answer to the lack of staff is not to violate the rights of patients and workers.”

Mr. Skopelitis says he is determined, while he is alone in the hospital, not to perform scheduled surgeries and to schedule seven to ten calls a month. As he notes, “You can’t do anything else. You are not allowed to get up to leave because it is against the code of medical ethics. You just hope that at some point things will change.”