ALTHOUGH Philippos Patsalis said he was stepping down as health minister for ‘personal reasons’ in his letter of resignation he also mentioned the vested interests that stood in the way of the reform and in particular the establishment of the national health system (NHS). Nobody appears to have bought the ‘personal reasons’ excuse as it had become public knowledge of late that Patsalis’ handling of plans for the NHS did not have the support of the president.
This was evident after the council of ministers failed to approve the bills for the autonomy of state hospitals and send them to the legislature. Patsalis had wanted the bills approved before the legislature’s summer recess, but he may have been over-optimistic in thinking the parties would have passed them, given the strong opposition of the unions and strike threats. The most recent strike threat by nurses, who want to have public employee status at independent hospitals, was averted at the last minute, most probably as a result of some promise made by the president to the nurses’ unions.
The presidential palace was unhappy with the way Patsalis presented his resignation – as an act of resistance to vested interests – because this put the government in a bad light, implying it was pandering to the unions. Unnamed government sources, quoted in the press, described the former minister as the “weakest link in the cabinet” who “showed obvious weaknesses as a manager”. The sources also claimed that by resigning he had spared the president a “difficult decision” but the palace was still annoyed by Patsalis’ attempt to present his departure as a “heroic exit”.
This sounds very much like sour grapes and raises the question of why President Anastasiades had kept the cabinet’s “weakest link” in charge of implementing the most complex and daunting project ever undertaken by the Republic. A manager with a proven track record would have faced difficulties planning and implementing an NHS from scratch, so why had someone with “obvious weaknesses as a manager” been left in charge of it for so long? It makes no sense.
Perhaps, what Anastasiades considers good management is giving in to the demands of the unions, which Patsalis had done when faced with a strike threat from the government doctors a few months ago. Given the president’s record, it is more than likely that he had made concessions to the nursing unions just as he had done in a dispute with the teachers over the introduction of the meritocratic appointment system. As a compromise it will not be fully implemented before 2027. This presumably showed the education minister had great strengths as manager, in the president’s view at least.
The truth is that Anastasiades is terrified of confronting the unions, a fact his associates have tried to conceal by casting aspersions on Patsalis’ managerial skills.
