Instead of being strengthened, the public health system is being emptied of doctors and nurses. The extremely stressful working conditions (no leaves, days off, continuous duty, etc.), combined with low wages, have formed a hostile climate for the health personnel who serve in hospitals.
The list of doctors who have left is constantly growing, while the departures for the nursing staff have also begun.
The president of the workers of the Patras hospital “Agios Andreas”, Michalis Stellatos, indicates indicatively in “Peloponnisos»: «At the beginning of the year, we had seven resignations of doctors, and in fact of the first line. Add to these the resignation of a plastic surgeon and an oncologist. These positions were never filled. As the 25 people of the nursing staff who have left recently have not been covered».
With regard to the nursing staff, he explains that “colleagues are choosing to leave the permanency of the public sector due to the extremely stressful situation that prevails and either take leave without pay until they retire, or retire early, or go as substitutes in a position of school nurses now employed in schools. And colleagues with decades of service in the system are forced to do this. One can easily understand how difficult the situation is when a man in his 50s is forced to change his professional path. And the most important thing is that we are losing experienced and specialized staff”.
In conclusion, Mr. Stellatos underlines that month by month the number of workers at the hospital is decreasing. “The ministry has announced recruitments, but no new colleagues have arrived at the hospitals. On the contrary, new gaps are constantly being created.”
Kostas Petropoulos of the “Trade Union Change” Faction, in his statement he notes: “Too many of our colleagues work without the granting of days off in their time, but also their normal holidays, as a result of which they have accumulated too many days off and leaves, debts which for many reach more than 30 days off, which together with the leave due to exceed 50 working days. This indescribable situation is a consequence of the great lack of personnel and the necessity for as much as possible adequate staffing of our departments, despite the communication words of the managers about enough recruitments in our area, etc.”
