At least for the next while, the provision requiring private doctors to make on-call rounds at regional hospitals around the country will remain inactive.The tension that had prevailed for two weeks between Health Minister,Adonis Georgiadis, and private doctors was defused towards the end of the week when the private doctors responded to the call of the nine problem areas that required their assistance.

Against this backdrop, the Health Minister said that he will not issue a Ministerial Decision to implement the proposed regulation included in the Psychiatric Reform Bill. The regulation, however, remains in the bill as normal and is expected to be voted on tomorrow, Monday, it just won’t be implemented for now. Private doctors believe that the current normalization will last 2-3 months and several regional hospitals will be left with the same vacancies after a short time. Besides, they say, the new incentives being prepared by the health ministry take time to pay off and no one knows whether they will eventually attract doctors to the NHS.

Private doctors are calling for the controversial provision to be withdrawn from the bill. This is the reason why they are abstaining from e-prescribing for two days, on Friday and next Monday. The abstention means that people who need prescriptions are paying for drugs and tests as normal. However, private doctors are normally serving emergencies and people with disabilities. They also give handwritten prescriptions, meaning they do not leave citizens without the option of seeing a doctor.

With their mobilization, they want to show what will happen in practice if the Health Ministry’s provision is activated in the future. It is recalled that, according to the promoted regulation, doctors contracted with the National Organization for the Provision of Health Services (EOPYY) will fill the gaps in nursing homes if they are requested, otherwise their contract with the Organization will be terminated. Also, the right to electronic prescription is to be discontinued for private doctors who refuse to offer their services.

As per the information, the hospitals that need the private doctors to assist in their on-call duties at least once a month each of those operating in each region are: Sparta Hospital, Kos Hospital, Ptolemaida “Bodosakeio” Hospital, Drama Hospital, Xanthi Hospital, Kilkis Hospital, Didymoteicho Hospital, Pyrgos Hospital, Rethymnon Hospital. The Minister of Health assured last Thursday that the doctors responded to the call – something confirmed by the Medical Associations – except for Kos. On Friday, in a post on social media, Georgiades noted that three private pathologists had also accepted to help in Kos, with the situation largely normalising on the island of Hippocrates.

“We have a very, very specific plan over the last 12 months in particular. Which includes increasing doctors’ allowances, incentives which will start to be given from September in arid areas, evening surgeries and private practice, which increases doctors’ fees. These are ways so that we can reduce the chances of these places becoming barren. Until these measures take effect, we’ve asked for the help of our private colleagues, which we’ve been doing for about 2 or 3 years. It has started from COVID, in many areas private colleagues are participating in on-call duties and helping in hospitals,” Deputy Minister of Health, Marios Themistocleous, tells “THEMA”.

Private doctors speak of a temporary normalization and refer to a problem caused by the compulsory nature of the health ministry leadership’s decision to impose. Representatives of the Panhellenic Medical Association note that anyway, if doctors were invited, they would help, as they have helped before. “The situation… was derailed by the minister’s threats,” they say. In fact, they believe that the passage of the provision obliging them to be on call – otherwise they will be sanctioned – will have the opposite effect.

In Kos, for example, a region with a shortage of pathologists in the hospital, under the threat of the activation of the provision, even next year, private doctors will make sure to … avoid it. Of the nine private internists, four are close to retirement and one is in the military, so he may request a transfer. It is worth noting that the private doctors in many cases are elderly and feel they cannot support a hospital on-call service that requires long hours and constant vigilance.

The Health Ministry is formulating a plan to help areas of the country that have a problem with doctors. This has three parts: expanding the areas considered arid, which means doctors will receive an agony allowance, increasing allowances, and an even bigger increase for six medical specialties that are not of interest.

An article included in the Psychiatric Reform Bill amends an earlier provision to allow for an increase of 300 euros in arid areas A and 200 euros in arid areas B per month in the amount granted to doctors serving in hospitals in those areas. The Health Ministry’s proposal is that these amounts should be doubled for six ‘infertile’ medical specialities. The aim is for the first category of infertile areas to be given an additional €3 600 gross per year, while the six specialties with significant shortages (internal medicine, anaesthesiology, nephrology, pathological anatomical radiology, medical biology and laboratory medicine) should be given an additional €7 200 gross per year. In the second category, the amounts will be EUR 2 400 and EUR 4 800 gross per year respectively. In order to proceed with the adoption of the Joint Ministerial Decision (CMD), the green light is expected to be given by the Ministry of Finance for the amounts proposed by the Ministry of Health. It is understood that the CSA will be published in the Government Gazette by August 15.