Dear friends, good day to you all!
Over the past few years, under the Mitsotakis administration, it is true that much has been done for the National Health System (ESY), some of which the Prime Minister himself mentioned yesterday during his appearance at a conference on health.
Andrightly so, as health is the most precious thing the people of this country have.
However, Mr. Mitsotakis also made two specific references yesterday, prompted, first, by the recent case of alleged bribery of a doctor by a patient and, second, by the medical care provided to his wife, Mareva Grabowski – Mitsotakis, as well as that of his close associate and Deputy Minister to the Prime Minister, G. Mylonakis, expressing his satisfaction with the quality of the medical and nursing services both received.
Specifically regarding his wife, he emphasized that “both times (she fell ill) we unreservedly trusted the National Health System, and I am very happy about that,” expressing similar sentiments regarding the hospitalization of his close associate.
He added, however, that“I have no illusions; I know full well that when the Prime Minister’s wife is admitted to a public hospital, many will be quick to say that she may have received special care, ”although he expressed his absolute conviction that “any patient who presented with the symptoms my wife had at the emergency room of ‘Evangelismos’ would have been operated on with the same speed and, I am sure, the same effectiveness as what was done for my wife.”
Unfortunately, while there is no doubt about the high-quality services provided by the doctors and nurses of the National Health System, there are objections regarding both of the points raised by the Prime Minister.
Irrefutable proof of this is the long wait times that thousands of citizens continue to endure daily in emergency departments, even at major Athens hospitals such as Evangelismos, despite the new priority “wristband” system.
This is a situation with which, unfortunately, I have personal experience, as my wife, Depi, who recently had a serious health issue, and I were forced to wait at least four hours, with the total average wait exceeding five hours or sometimes even longer, until we left Evangelismos and sought refuge, as we were able to, at a private hospital.
Many, if not the majority of our fellow citizens, do not have this option.
Similarly, although Mr. Mitsotakis argued, referring to the phenomenon of bribing doctors, that this is the exception and not the rule, and that the solution will come through maximizing transparency in the operation of the hospital system, the mere existence of the need for citizens to resort to bribing doctors in order to receive their services undermines his argument.
Obviously, transparency will bolster efforts to eliminate bribery, but the problem lies in the operation of the National Health System, which “creates” the need for bribes. When patients endure hours of waiting to be seen in the emergency room and months or even years before they can undergo surgery, it is clear that they will have every reason to try to expedite matters, even through improper means. People want their health.
Without a doubt, there have been improvements in the functioning of the NationalHealthSystem in recent years, which we must acknowledge. However, let us not turn a blindeye. The “big patient”remains.