Its operation is implemented from today, Thursday, February 1 Single Digital List of Surgerieswith the aim of reducing patients’ waiting time.

The Joint Ministerial Decision has been signed by the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis, the Minister of Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou, the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance Thanos Petralias and the Deputy Minister of Health Marios Themistokleous.

How the Single Digital List of Surgeries works

The Single Digital List of Surgeries is drawn up through the electronic platform that operates at IDIKA and is the digital filing system, where the order of priority of the surgeries to be performed in the hospitals is displayed.

The list is updated with the necessary elements of the clinical assessment of each citizen who is judged by the attending doctor-surgeon to need surgery and interoperates with every necessary information system and structured data system, such as the National Patient Registers and the Individual Electronic Health File.

More specifically, each hospital responsible for the establishment and operation of the Single Surgery List proceeds to liquidate the list it maintains, after confirming that each patient already included in the existing surgery list wishes to remain enrolled in it.

For the final confirmation of the patients’ stay or deletion from the list, a phone call is made. Patients who are found to be unwilling to remain on that list are removed from that list in order to clean up the lists.

The deputy commander is designated as the person in charge of supervision and control of the Unified List of Surgeries and where the commander is not present, while the director of the Medical Service is responsible for its preparation and operation.

In addition, each attending surgeon enters into the digital platform of the Single List of Surgery all the necessary data to create the patient record.

After the clinical assessment of the condition of each of his patients, he assesses the severity of the disease, classifies the case based on specific categorization and criteria, where the estimated waiting time until the operation is performed is determined.

Georgiadis: Transparency with the single list of surgeries

Speaking to ERT about the unified list of surgeries, the Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis noted that the waiting time per clinic will now be known to everyone. “My goal is to make information public domain to all citizens,” said Mr. Georgiadis, saying that patients should know the waiting time. And as he noted, the measure will be judged in practice by the time required for the surgery.

However, as he said, who is operated on first has to do with each doctor who examines the criticality of each patient’s health. “The single surgery list gives us transparency, it gives us a series, it tells us the average waiting times, but if a doctor wants to put a patient ahead of him, he has the right to do so.”

He added that “there is no serious argument against public afternoon surgeries”. In addition, he emphasized that the Ministry of Health will count surgeries at the clinic level and not at the doctor level. When asked if the afternoon surgeries will also be performed by private anesthesiologists or only by those of the NHS, Mr. Georgiadis replied that “the initial phase of the reform is to do this exclusively through the NHS. In the second phase, I want to open it to private individuals. It’s not yet time for that.”

Regarding whether there is a case for the state to cover the cost of the afternoon surgeries, Mr. Georgiadis replied negatively saying that he does not have the money required and “cannot double the fees of the doctors. But he hastened to add that the ministry is looking for smart ideas to further strengthen the effort of our weak fellow citizens to undergo surgery as soon as possible.

“The prime minister has shown an interest in finding a solution for our fellow citizens who have already had a very long wait,” said Mr. Georgiadis, leaving open the possibility of announcing some relevant measure in the future.

“When something that is illegal, but no matter how many repressive measures you have found, you legalize it, you reduce the illegality” concluded the Minister of Health.