Doctors are worthy of respect because they were not influenced by extremist union appeals, said the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiades, citing data from IDIKA which show that electronic prescribing is following the usual rhythms, despite the announcement by the Panhellenic Medical Association to refrain from prescribing by private doctors, with a view to approving a provision providing for the imposition of sanctions in the event of refusal by private doctors to support the NHS, when there are important reasons to protect public health.
“I sincerely thank the independent private doctors who did not follow the Panhellenic Medical Association’s call to refrain from prescribing. I was sure that they would not follow it, as evidenced by the electronic records. Electronic prescribing today follows the usual rhythm, with a small drop today of about 5,000, 6,000 prescriptions, but yesterday there was a corresponding increase, apparently some people were afraid of the fuss and went to write their prescriptions. Basically the prescribing is done normally, so don’t worry guys, from what the numbers show, doctors are prescribing normally and I thank you for that. The opposite would be truly tragic,” said the Minister of Health and insisted:
“It would be really tragic if doctors, their conflict, any conflict they have with any political leadership, in this case with me, took it out on their patients. Doctors have not done that so far and that is a reason for them to be respected, because they have not been influenced by extremist union appeals.”
For shortages in hospitals
Mr Georgiadis referred to the shortage of hospitals, a problem faced by the whole EU, as he pointed out. He also referred to the fruitless appeals of doctors, despite the incentives given to them. “The Minister of Health has a heavy responsibility to exhaust all available means to provide his fellow citizens, his fellow human beings, with a hospital that is basically functioning. Kill me! You say very nice words, to increase the budget, to increase the incentives, we will probably do that as much as we can. You may want more. The General Accounting Office tells us that we can. All this is good, but it does not solve the problem of August,” said Mr Georgiadis, who nevertheless expressed his assessment that with the new incentive policy, with the new policy for arid areas, with the increase in money that will be given to doctors to go to these areas, the result will be much better, in four months’ time, when the new announcement is made.
“However, during the four months, the opposition’s proposal was not to put pressure on doctors. This surprised me a lot because until now I was the supposed defender of private doctors against the NHS. All these days, however, you are the supporters of private doctors against the NHS. I was really surprised by this”, said the Minister of Health, addressing the opposition parties and adding: “I really thought that the left would be in favour of private doctors going to the NHS, where there is no other solution, and letting them miss their doctor’s office one day”.
Mr Georgiadis informed the Parliament’s Social Affairs Committee that three private doctors in Kos have already declared their intention to take up positions at the island’s hospital. There will also be a doctor from Hippocrates and possibly another doctor from another hospital in Athens. In addition, in Xanthi, ten doctors have declared their intentions during the four months.
“I asked them to step back for four months until I announce the positions again, with the new incentives, with which I believe more will come,” Georgiadis said, adding that now dozens of volunteer private doctors in Greece have put it into practice and thanked them for it, because they have helped keep hospitals afloat this quarter.
“As you understand, after what I have told you, there is no longer any reason to issue the relevant ministerial decision implementing the article in question,” the Health Minister said, adding: “I have said it here in Parliament more than two hundred times that it is not my intention to take such a decision. The article has been included and will remain in the bill (the ss bill for psychiatric reform), so that the Greek Health Minister, if necessary and has no other solution, can also have this weapon in his hands, as a last resort, as the last weapon, when there is absolutely no other solution.”
Mr Georgiadis informed the deputies that The bill will also include an amendment that will concern the private work of NHS doctors. The change will expand the possibility of private work for both specialist doctors and assistants. However, it clarified that the exercise of private work will be for what their license allows for the exercise of medical work.
Bullying an employee is a shameful and illegal practice
The Minister of Health also referred to yesterday’s incident, with Pavlos Polakis as the protagonist.
“Confronting each other politically in the chamber is legitimate, understandable, acceptable, sometimes we can even go beyond the limits. Parliament is a place of compromises but also of conflicts. We cannot agree on everything nor disagree on everything. We are political adversaries and not enemies, that is what I believe, but sometimes we can go beyond the limits and, to be completely honest, the last person in this chamber to criticize, in terms of maintaining the limits, would be me. And since I don’t like not looking in the mirror, I say that sometimes I have also gone beyond the limits. I try not to do that, but it has happened to me. As in this committee, with my statement last week, with my statement to Mr. Polakis, for which I apologized to him the next day in the plenary”, said Adonis Georgiadis and added: “This is different and it is different to turn against the staff. The staff are here to serve us, to do our job and to make the functioning of Parliament possible, whether they are MEPs or ministers, or the services of Parliament, so that in the end we reach a result”.
Especially for his partner who was shot yesterday by Pavlos Polakis, Mr. Georgiadis said: “Ms. Petroulia is not here for a hobby. Ms. Petroulia is here doing a job. She is a worker doing a job. I am happy with the decision taken yesterday by SYRIZA, not because I have any problems with Mr. Polakis, but it would be tragic as a message to show that we cannot understand in Parliament that it is forbidden to bully a worker in Greece. And bullying a worker is, fortunately, a shameful and illegal practice in the society we live in.”
“I hope that Mr. Polakis’s removal is not a political maneuver by August, only to be reinstated a little later. “Because I confess that from Mr. Kasselakis’s subsequent statements, I understood something like this. I won’t say what he will do in his party, but it will be very derogatory for the Greek people and for all working women who have been victims of bullying at work to use political excuses. Here we have the archetype that the left should be fighting: the intimidation of the employer against the employee,” said Adonis Georgiadis.