Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis referred today to the new incentives that will be given to doctors in order to cover sanitary, barren regions of the country in his intervention at the 28th Annual Economist Government Roundtable.

Among other things, as he said, two government decisions are already ready to be signed today, one of which concerns his doctors YOUwho are given the possibility to do private work as well, and the second in the new form of incentives to cover the gaps in doctors in the barren regions of the country and the islands.

As he said, referring to the island of Kos, “it is unthinkable that we have an announcement 14 times, 4 positions for pathologists in the hospital and there is no interest, at the same time that we have many private pathologists on the island, who obviously do not care if there are pathologists to support public health».

Mr. Georgiadis hinted that in the coming days a new strict intervention will be announced by the Ministry of Health, in order to normalize this observed situation, stressing that “the health system is one thing”, implying that decisions are coming that will settle this issue once and for all.

He spoke of a productive five months in the position of Minister of Health, while as he argued, that the goal is “in 2025 the NHS should be a completely different, improved system”. Referring to the Health system, he said that there is already a 1.5% decrease in expenses compared to last year, when an increase was recorded in all previous years. “The largest number of surgeries have been performed. With the least possible expenses, we have achieved an increase in productivity”, stressed Mr. Georgiadis, pointing out at the same time that “the pharmaceutical expenditure has also gone very well and has not escaped in 2024”. He said that there is transparency in the pharmaceutical expenditure of the EOPYY and that “the effort made by the Ministry of Health to limit the shortages of medicines is already evident in the market».

Finally, he emphasized that due to the Development Fund, the Ministry of Health managed to prioritize prevention among the general population.

Talking about the digital health reforms, he said that we have succeeded 100% in immaterial prescribing and better control of costs.

As he predicted, the biggest challenge in the future for the health systems of both our country and Europe will be the shortage of health personnel, as, as he explained, “there is already a shortage of one and a half million doctors and one and a half million nurses across Europe.” This phenomenon is also accompanied by an increase in salaries for health workers in the northern countries of Europe, as a result of which they “migrate» in them and the problem of the lack of personnel in the southern countries of Europe, as well as in Greece, becomes more acute.

For his part, Adrian Van den Hoven, general manager of Medicines for Europe pointed out the role that the pharmaceutical industry now plays in Europe, stressing that 70% of prescriptions are generic, while the corresponding percentage in America reaches 89% .

He spoke of the need to increase the production of generic drugs and added that of the 300 drugs that the European Commission considers very critical for the future of Europe, 66% are generic.

As he pointed out, the increase in the use of generic drugs is also important in our country, which, as he said, is one of the most important countries in the production of generics in Europe.

Something which is extremely important, he stressed, as the production of drugs in Europe with the aim of cheaper and more effective drugs will be the demand in the future.

The president of the Panhellenic Pharmaceutical Industry Union, Theodoros Tryfon, spoke of another model for medicine in Europe. He spoke about the investment gap of the decade of the crisis in our country, which, as he said, must be covered with quick steps and emphasized that the goal is to increase production, which will lead to a reduction in shortages and ensure citizens in terms of their therapeutic coverage. He also reminded that 10% of the factory production of medicines in Europe is done in our country and spoke of 1.23 billion investments, but also investments in human capital and knowledge, which is a one-way street for the coming years.