With slight changes in the conditions for the implementation of a private project for National Health Service doctors and with the addition of penalties for those who do not comply with these conditions, was filed in parliament bill of the Ministry of Health on secondary medical care and medical education.

The bill, which begins consideration by members of the Social Affairs Committee today, comes with provisions to increase the salaries of NHS doctors, in line with announcements by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis from the TIF platform. This does not appear to affect the response of NHS physician representatives, with Association of Doctors of Hospitals of Athens Piraeus organize 24-hour strikes next Monday and Tuesday.

According to the bill, hospital doctors The National Health Services may carry out private work – whether they are in private practice or provide services in a private clinic or diagnostic laboratory – up to two times a week, provided they participate at least eight times a month in off-hours per call and a 24-hour hospital operation, of which at least four will be in a day clinic or surgery. Surgical and interventional interventions performed outside the hospital per week should not exceed the number of corresponding interventions performed in the hospital by the same doctor. For those who violate these conditions, the opportunity to engage in private work will be canceled for six months. In the event of a first relapse, the ban is extended to two years, and in the event of a second relapse, the right is permanently lost.

Increasing salaries and allowances for medical staff of hospitals.

Physicians’ associations oppose the possibility of NHS doctors doing private work. EINAP estimates that “the abolition of full and monopoly employment removes another barrier to patients becoming easy clients in the private sector” and that “the performance of clinics and laboratories will further deteriorate when their physicians are simultaneously employed in the private sector.” time”. He characterizes the salary increments envisaged by the bill as a mockery, noting that they do not correspond to what they are entitled to on the basis of decisions of the Council of Ministers (the return of salaries to premorandum levels). According to the bill, the basic salaries of doctors are increased by 5%, the bonus for responsible positions by 30% and the hospital allowance by 120 euros horizontally at all levels. There is a 50% increase in hospital allowances for resuscitators (40% for intensive care physicians without specialization), as well as salary allowances for emergency physicians and anesthesiologists (400 euros and 250 euros for specialists and specialists, respectively). It is noted that the bill also provides for the employment of private doctors in the NHS on a part-time basis, changes in the process of evaluation and selection of doctors, the definition of groups of hospitals in which new doctors will specialize on a rotational basis, the evaluation of paramedics, the expansion of autonomous ENTs and the creation of physical obstetric centers. .

Opposition

The reaction of the parties is also expected to be stormy. Andreas Xanthos, former health minister and head of the SYRIZA health department, has already announced his party’s decision to vote against the bill. He said the government’s legislative proposal “gives a free chance to secondary care” and “reduces the free services of the National Health Service.”

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