The actions expected to be implemented by the Ministry of Health in the coming months were presented at a press conference given at noon on Monday by its leadership, speaking of a “bracelet” with the aim of tracking the waiting times at each stage of the on-call service, to expand the working hours of urban type Health Centers to accept cases with the aim of reducing the waiting time of patients in the emergency rooms of the hospitals of Attica, recruitment of nurses and ambulances, as well as building renovations of the Emergency Departments (EDs).

Specifically, according to what was announced by the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadisfrom the beginning of February will be piloted in 4 hospitals a new program for her digital upgrade of TEPs. These are the Hippocrates, the Laikos, the Evangelismos and the Constantopoulios. Patients will be supplied a bracelet with a QR code upon entering the hospital and a special center for monitoring the movement of the TEPs will monitor how many patients have been served and at what times.

Also, with a new digital infrastructure (possibly via the My Health App) and the patients themselves will see from their mobile phones how long the wait is at each hospital in the Emergency, so that they can be directed to the EDs with the least amount of waiting. Some Health Centers are even expected to join the emergency system.

At the same time, they were announced recruitment in TEP and in particular 229 nurses, 233 people – other staff, 19 doctors of the 1st Department of Health, 18 doctors of the 2nd Department of Health and 100 paramedics.

Also, construction is underway renovations of Emergency Departments. For example, in the “Attikon” hospital, the TEP becomes 5,000 sq.m. from 1,000 sq.m. The Ministry’s planning includes an upgrade of the medical technological equipment in the TEPs (a total of 3.2 million euros).

The leadership of the Ministry of Health announced a program that is expected to start and concerns the guidance of citizens in the Emergency Departments. 25 Red Cross staff are expected to be deployed in the major hospitals of Attica which will help citizens with documents, doctor’s offices, direction where they should wait, etc.

“It’s a more humane approach, as no one goes to the emergency room because they want to,” as the health minister pointed out, adding that there will be arrangements for free wifi in the emergency room areas as well as for televisions to make the wait easier.

It was also announced expansion of the hours of the Health Centers urban type, in order to decongest the emergency rooms of the hospitals of Attica, as well as building renovations of the Emergency Departments (EDs).

In “Atticon” specifically, from 1,000 sq.m. which are the TEPs, will become 5,000 after the renovation. The same applies to “Evangelism”which has stopped the morning operation of the vigils due to the building renovations. These new infrastructures will greatly improve the image and service of patients, according to the Deputy Minister of Health.

New way of registering electronic appointments

It was also announced new way of registering electronic appointments with doctors in Primary Health Care, through the platform finddoctors.gov.gr, in which all public health structures participate, 3,500 private specialty doctors contracted with EOPYY.

The Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, emphasized that the steps for the platform user are simple: First, he will have to identify himself with his details via gov.gr. He then registers his AMKA, chooses a new appointment and the system quickly and easily shows him the doctor contracted with the EOPYY who is closest to his place of residence and informs him when an appointment is available. The confirmation of the appointment is made with the approval of the doctor.

“The goal of the plan is to reduce waiting times,” Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis stressed at the beginning of the Press Conference, adding that this time cannot be reduced to zero, he noted and added that due to the increase in viruses, there is an increase in traffic at the TEPs this year space.

“On busy days, such as after the holidays, when respiratory diseases (flu, Covid, RSV) increase, hospitals are under a lot of pressure. Today, there is no average waiting time in Emergency Departments (EDs). We estimate it to be around 8-9 hours,” he said specifically.

He clarified that the changes concern ambulatory patients, not serious cases or those transported by ambulance. “If we can get the waiting time down to five hours, it will be a significant advance. But when we reach ten o’clock, this is problematic. That’s why we created a new plan,” he said.

The introduction of all available appointments from public hospitals on the “FindDoctors” platform aims, according to the Ministry of Health, to facilitate citizens to easily search and close medical appointments and save time without telephone communications or physical presence. This also contributes to the better functionality of the system as there is now a collection of all available appointments by hospital and specialty and immediate appointment confirmation via message or email.

Among the benefits, according to the Ministry of Health, are the reduction of waiting times, the decongestion of call centers and the strengthening of the efficiency and flexibility of the health system.

In February, an application (app) for the mobile phone will also work and the citizen will be able to book an appointment there without having to visit the website, said Mr. Georgiadis, who added that “phone appointments will continue to exist, so that citizens who cannot use the new technology can be served”.

Irini Agapidaki: “Which Health Centers will participate in the on-calls”

Taking the floor, Irini Agapidaki said that the Urban Health Centers are already taking on cases, it’s just that people don’t know about them.

Some of them are the Health Centers: Alexandras (on 24-hour duty), Kallithea, Amarousiou, Rafina (on a 24-hour basis), Vari – Megaron – Elefsina (on 24-hour duty), Keratsiniou (7 a.m. to 9 p.m.).

In fact, as Mrs. Agapidaki announced, in order to reduce the suffering of the citizens, they will be done immediately 50 recruitment of auxiliary staff in the health centers that will gradually begin to support the emergency services of the hospitals in Attica.

Marios Themistokleous: The changes are gradual

The Deputy Minister of Health, Marios Themistokleous, presented for his part the detailed plan for improving the conditions in emergency rooms. He emphasized that the project is particularly demanding, as the hospitals of Attica alone serve around 2,000 patients every day.

The planned actions aim to improve incident management and reduce waiting times, providing better health services to citizens.

The changes, as he said, will be done gradually and not overnight. These changes move in 7 axes, among which the reinforcement of the emergency departments with medical technological equipment, the digital upgrade, the organizational changes, the addition of volunteers, etc.

There will be a center that will control the on-call, so that we have a diffusion of the incidents and coordination, mainly among the patients who arrive with the ED. Another change will be the participation of Health Centers in emergency services.

“Sometimes the vigil reminds us of images of war and this does not only happen in Greece. That’s why we don’t sweep the problems under the carpet, but look for solutions”, stressed Adonis Georgiadis from his side.

Mr. Themistokleous mentioned that the recruitment of auxiliary staff will soon take place and that the procedures have already started and the doctors of the 1st Ministry of Health’s TEPs will soon join the hospitals, followed by those in the hospitals of the 2nd Ministry of Health.

At the same time, there is a program to recruit 500 trauma carriers from the OAED, who will soon start working in the hospitals. Of these, the 100 injured carriers will join the TEP.