Hospitalization of EOPYY insured persons, primarily in the ESY, is the central choice of the Ministry of Health, as stated by the competent minister Adonis Georgiadis, speaking earlier in the Parliament. “I have given an order – I have published in the gazette the Negotiation Committee about three weeks ago, which has started the negotiation with the private clinics – for the signing of the new contract, as the present one expires, between the EOPYY and the private clinics and the of the new EKPY (Uniform Regulation of Health Benefits). I want to be very honest.

I do not want to motivate the presence of my fellow citizens in private clinics for services provided by the NHS. I don’t like to drive it at all. I claim that the NHS is functional and can provide absolutely free to my fellow citizens extremely high quality health services”, said the Minister of Health and added: “I consider the existing framework too gallant in favor of private clinics, as it easily sends patients to private clinics. As a consequence of this, the number of patients who choose private clinics has increased enormously and the amount we give before “clawback”, that is, the relevant fund that EOPYY spends for this reason, has greatly increased.

This will also be the political direction of the new contract, said the Minister of Health and added: “If a fellow citizen of mine wants to go to private clinics for things that the National Health Service provides, that is his free choice. I respect people’s freedom. However, everyone makes their own choices there. There his participation EOPYY it will be very specific. My political will is for the new EKPY and the new contract to motivate much more the choice of the National Health Service and less the choice of private clinics”.

Adonis Georgiadis was called, in the context of the parliamentary audit, to answer a topical question of PASOK MP Ioannis Tsimaris in relation to the “Ombudsman’s opinion on the charges of private healthcare providers and the role of EOPYY as a social security organization” .

The MP said that “in the relevant conclusion it is stated that the citizens who appealed complained that EOPYY did not respond to their requests for information and control regarding the costing of their hospitalizations in contracted private clinics, as well as that the organization refused to charge of the providers of amounts that EOPYY itself has found to have been improperly charged or illegally demanded from the insured”.