TEMPORARY doctors are being hired by the state with forged diplomas or inadequate qualifications, while surgeons who had not touched a scalpel for years could not perform their duties when hired, the House Health Committee heard yesterday.
AKEL deputy Adamos Adamou told the committee that the assessment of qualifications was inadequate, allowing the hiring of people with forged diplomas.
Adamou said such diplomas were sold over the Internet, charging that there had been a case where a doctor had been hired using just such a fake diploma.
The chairman of the doctors’ union agreed that the system was flawed as it considered a Harvard diploma equal to one from a third rate university.
Stavros Stavrou charged that some surgeons who had not touched a scalpel for years could not carry out their duties when hired.
He said some universities in countries of the former Soviet Union gave diplomas for a small fee. He described doctors who secured diplomas in this manner as criminals.
Stavrou added that, in some cases, the directors of state clinics who dared to ask for the replacement of temporary doctors risked being transferred.
He said the current system allowed doctors to be hired at the age of 55 when their colleagues were retiring.
DIKO deputy Zacharias Koulias pointed out that there seemed to be some form of discrimination against doctors who had studied in Greece in favour of doctors with diplomas from Eastern European countries.
DISY deputy Zacharias Zachariou went a step further to suggest that the hiring procedure was not transparent since the criteria were set after the positions were announced.
This method gave the impression that the criteria were set to serve people on the appointments waiting list.
Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Andys Tryfonides said the state was using an objective method, but conceded that it did not view candidates according to their individual merits.
The main problem was that the procedure did not judge the person but the diplomas presented, Tryfonides said.
No other country applies this method, which was originally adopted to dispel suspicions that appointments were conducted on the basis of political criteria.
The director of the department of administration and personnel, George Papageorgiou, said the legislation had been adopted to cover temporary needs for a short period but the temporary staff ended up covering permanent requirements.
Stavrou said the public sector did not have young doctors to send for specialised training and the older ones who had families refused to travel abroad.
The committee will continue discussion of the issue next week in the presence of Health Minister Dina Akkelidou.
