2024-05-11 14:43:53
In an… “unfortunate” moment for the National Health System, one could say that the visit of Minister Adonis Georgiadis to the two hospitals of Ioannina, a city that for decades has had high-level public health services compared to others, a fact that allows her to perceive the degradation that has taken place in recent years, alongside the “boom” of the private sector.
The visit of Mr. Georgiadis to the two hospitals of the city did not go “unnoticed” by the opposition parties. On the contrary, he was particularly criticized for the minister’s cynical argument regarding the non-renewal of the indefinite-term contracts of approximately 140 catering, cleaning and security workers, who, however, had been renewed by political choice during the pandemic period, as well as for the prepared his position that the two hospitals have a larger number of staff since 2019, while the “mandates” to doctors to cover needs inside and outside Epirus continue and the number of employees falls short of the actual needs.
However, he was mainly criticized for the broader government policy in the field of Health, which promotes privatization even in the provision of health services, with legislation on paid afternoon clinics, but also the entry of private individuals into public structures.
N.E. comments on these issues in a statement. of Ioannina of SYRIZA – P.S., characterizing Mr. Georgiadis as “minister of the contractors who has contracted the transformation of public health into private”, criticizing his announcement for the division of the Ministry of Health and the expansion of the TEP at the University Hospital, without accompanies them with announcements for the necessary recruitments. “With his short visit to our city, Adonis Georgiadis, after “forgetting” to notify the representatives of the workers at “Hatzikosta” about the meeting, did one thing: He gave the green light to the contractors for their total return to the hospitals and showed the way of the dismissal of 140 contract workers who “kept” public health in bad times… It is up to us to stop it”, reports the Thematic Health of N.E. of Ioannina of SYRIZA.
PASOK’s Prefectural Committee of Ioannina will be added to the “barrage” of reactions, as will the party’s MP Yiannis Tsimaris.
“They came, they saw and they left” is noted in a statement by NE, a phrase that Mr. Tsimaris also used, speaking of the sacrifice of the SOH workers “on the altar of complete and uncontrolled privatization”, for the numerous announcement of the split of the 6th Ministry of Health and Welfare and for assurance of the construction of a “shortened TEP”. On the contrary, as he notes, the minister did not inform about the understaffing – underfunding of the hospitals.
“In the country’s hospitals, such as in G.N. “Hatzikosta” and at P.G.N.I. funding falls short of the European average, which is now an established situation. As a result, the shortages of medicines, other health materials and modern equipment, while the overdue debts of the hospitals set a new decade record and amounted to 1.4 billion euros, resulting in the referral of Greece by the Commission to the Court of Justice of the European Union” , noted Mr. Tsimaris, adding that staff shortages are reflected in the closed operating rooms. He also noted that the split of the 6th Ministry of Health should be accompanied by institutional autonomy and substantial health decentralization, while he also referred to the risk of disintegration of the PGNI’s TEP, due to the failures and delays of the previous administration.
“The priority of the N.D. in health during the last five years of her administration remains only in communications. We, as PASOK, stand for a NHS with a public character, modern, decentralized and efficient with quality, universal and free services. And that is non-negotiable. Because Health is a right and not a consumer good”, concluded Mr. Tsimaris.
“The… supervision of the rapid implementation of the anti-people measures in the two hospitals of the city was the purpose of the visit of the Minister of Health”, the Ioannina Sectoral Committee of the KKE states in its comment, calling on the people and health workers not to allow brutality to prevail and the “legal envelope”, and supporting fixed-term contract holders. “Let the people of Ioannina reflect: The policy that puts our lives in the balance of the profits of a handful of business groups, that shape working jungle conditions in the workplaces, has the stamp of the European Union and the parties that vote and implement them. Now it is important to strengthen the current of questioning this barbaric policy. In this direction, only the vote for the KKE can strengthen the voice of the workers in the European Parliament and where all the anti-people laws are overturned, on the way to the struggle”, the announcement emphasizes.
“Adonis Georgiadis essentially came as the undertaker of the NHS” emphasized the MP of Ioannina of the New Left Meropi Tzoufi, speaking of a complete dissolution of the health system, but also a further burden on the patients, who cannot meet the health costs, calling all the progressive forces on a “front” against this policy.
“It is not a personal choice, it is the policy of ND and Mr. Mitsotakis, which Mr. Georgiadis implements with unparalleled zeal and speed. It doesn’t bother the neo-liberal ND that our country is last in public spending on health, it doesn’t bother them that the citizens, the social majority will put their hand deeper and deeper into their pockets, to find care, This is exactly what they seek. This is why they voted for paid afternoon surgeries. This is the reason why they voted to allow private doctors to work in Public Hospitals as well. We are going back to the pre-NSY period, more than 40 years ago”, notes the New Left of Ioannina in a statement, emphasizing the cynical way the Minister treats the SOH workers. “Mr. Georgiadis and ND are the joy of contractors and private interests in health, they are the opponents of the National Health Service and public goods. We can stop them,” he concludes.
“Minister of layoffs and commercialization of health”
Inaccuracies and lies are attributed to the Minister of Health by the “Hygienic Rally” at the University Hospital of Ioannina, members of which attended the meetings with Mr. Georgiadis.
“The minister, with lies, inaccuracies, big-mouthed declarations without content but also with cynical political truths, tried to cover the only substantial announcement he made, that of the 140 pre-election dismissals of contractors, a sacrifice on the altar of the surplus profits of the particular contractor, who are trying with every way to enter the PGNI for four years, with 3.5 million per year”, notes ASY, adding on the one hand that their contracts were defined by the state as fixed-term because they would cover seasonal-emergency needs, however they covered fixed, permanent and ongoing needs, even in the midst of the pandemic, on the one hand, that the government did not show the same “sensitivity” in Article 16 of the Constitution, as in Article 103, which prohibits the conversion of fixed-term contracts into indefinite ones.
Regarding the minister’s reports on the number of staff, Mr. Prentzas spoke of inaccuracy and a lie at the same time, as on the one hand experienced staff retired and were replaced by contract workers, and on the other hand new departments and functions were opened. “Even if all the organic positions of the 2012 organization are filled, another 400 are missing for the 4th building and the new functions,” he noted.
Finally, he repeated the criticism for the reduction of the physical object of the PGNI’s TEP, as a result of which the pediatric TEP and the short hospitalization of children are left out, keeping overall the pediatric care in Epirus inferior and for the afternoon surgeries, directing his fire towards the members of DAKE of the Workers’ Association.