Mar 5, 2024
A joint ministerial decision to allow afternoon surgeries in public hospitals was signed on Tuesday by the Ministries of Health and Finances.
These surgeries will be carried out after the regular operating hours of National Health System (ESY) hospitals.Patients will have to pay a fee ranging from 300 to 2,000 euros, even if they are insured in the public health system where surgeries are free of charge.
The Health Ministry allegedly came up with this idea due to the long waiting lists for surgeries in the public hospitals with some patients to have to wait up to three years. In fact, however, instead of hiring personnel Minister Adonis Georgiadis puts an extra charge to patients who pay their social security contributions for years and have to decide: Pay or Die. not to mention those who cannot pay…
- Patients waiting for a surgery are estimated to be over 120,000 across the country.
- 40% of operation rooms in public hospitals are closed due to personal shortages
The first 50,000 afternoon surgeries are to be free of charge as they will be funded with EU money, the Health Minister said after it became clear that the society started boiling with anger over the ‘measure”.
“From now on, thousands of patients who have been waiting months for an operation will be able to find a way out via the afternoon surgeries, at a cost that is much less than in private clinics,” said Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis.
How and Where
According to daily ethnos.gr, afternoon surgeries will be paid for by patients, who will be able to choose which doctor will operate on them, effectively bypassing the priority order that currently exists for free operations.
Not all hospitals will be able to implement the afternoon surgeries. Currently assigned are the four big hospitals: Evangelismos, Attikon and G. Gennimatas in Athens and Papageorgiou in Thessaloniki.
Patients will be able to make telephone appointments with the doctor they wish in the first phase in order to schedule the operation
The ministerial decision includes both the fees of doctors and other health workers, as well as the money that patients will have to pay to have an operation in the afternoon.
Surgery fees to be paid by the patients start from 300 euros and reach up to 2000 euros.
Indicative prices for patients
Based on the ministerial decision:
- Very minor operation: 300 euros
- Minor operation: 500 euros
- Medium operation: 900 euros
- Major surgery: 1,200 euros
- Major surgery: 1,600 euros
- Extremely heavy surgery: 2,000 euros
Examples:
- for a cataract operation, the patient will have to pay €300 to €500.
- for an inguinal hernia operation, which is considered a minor surgery, the cost will reach €500.
- For cholecystectomy prices start at €500 and can reach up to €1200.
- For knee arthroplasty the price can reach up to €1600.
As far as doctors’ payments, these will start from 55 euros gross and can reach up to 1,000 euros depending on the rank of the surgeon.
KTG understands that the doctor’s payment is included in the operation fee paid by the patient.
Reactions
It is first the surgeons and other doctors in public hospitals who have raised strong objections to the afternoon surgeries due to staff shortages especially in anesthesiologists, to shortages in nursing personnel as well as to beds capacity.
Also, the society is against the new practice, with 59.8% of respondents in a recent poll to be against and just 30% in favor.
No wonder the government needed almost two years to implement the afternoon surgeries.
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