By Elias Hazou
PRIVATE and state doctors on Thursday agreed with Health Minister Giorgos Pamboridis to bury the hatchet and engage in talks aimed at introducing a National Health Scheme (NHS).
“We are not opposed to any NHS,” Petros Agathangelou, head of the Medical Association (CyMA) told reporters after meeting with Pamboridis.
The association was willing to enter into discussions on the mooted NHS, he added, provided that their ‘red lines’, which they laid out to the minister, are taken into account.
Whereas no decision was taken at the meeting for the drafting of final legislation, Agathangelou said, there was common ground that there can be no NHS unless public hospitals become autonomous, providing quality healthcare services.
“What we need is the political will and resources, and not cutbacks in the healthcare sector,” he said.
The private healthcare sector had a part to play, as it was in the patients’ interest to be able to choose their doctor, health care centre and “whatever else this entails.”
Their proposal, said Agathangelou, received a positive response from the health minister.
Asked about the recent tussle with the health minister, Agathangelou chose to play this down, noting it was now water under the bridge and that “a channel of communication has been opened.”
Pamboridis drew the ire of health professionals when, in an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday, he said there are private doctors who do not want to see the NHS implemented because they benefit hugely from the way the health system operates now.
Doctors operate in an uncontrolled environment with minimum competition and make a lot of money, which in many cases goes undeclared. All this would change when the NHS is introduced, the minister said.
According to the state broadcaster, during the meeting between CyMA and Pamboridis the issue of doctors not regularly clocking in – another bone of contention – was not discussed.
Reports, meanwhile, suggested that a new meeting of all healthcare stakeholders, chaired by President Nicos Anastasiades – who has personally stepped into the NHS controversy – is being planned for next week.
Regarding the state doctors’ move to limit the number of patients they examine to 20 a day, a fact-finding report is to be submitted to the Public
Health Services on Friday, detailing how many patients are being examined and cases of patient congestion.
Under the ‘mini-NHS’ recently proposed by Pamboridis, as a springboard to a full-fledged system, initially each state hospital should become financially and administratively autonomous by January 1, 2017.
During the second half of 2017, the mini-NHS would be gradually implemented. To fund it, workers would contribute 1 per cent of their salaries through the Social Security Fund; employers and the state would chip in for the rest.
The proposal has been opposed by most political parties and all associations of healthcare professionals, who banded together in a joint news conference last week to bash the plan.
