The President of the Republic Nikos Anastasiadis received today, at the Presidential Palace, delegations of the PASYKI, PASYDY and SESIK unions, in the presence of the Minister of Health George Pamporidis and the Deputy Minister under the President Konstantinos Petridis.
After the meeting, the Minister of Health told reporters that "the meeting convened by the President of the Republic in the context of his contacts with all stakeholders in view of the forthcoming reform in the field of Health was completed. Today it was the turn of the public doctors to report the concerns and problems they face, in view of the reform, to the President of the Republic himself. There was a constructive exchange of views and I must welcome the intention shown by all parties to show a spirit of consensus and cooperation.
The President clarified that the main concern of the Government is the acceleration of all procedures for the health reform with the ultimate goal of introducing the GESY for the benefit primarily of the patients. The main concern of the President of the Republic is the patients and in this context he asks to receive first hand information from all stakeholders so that where and where the knowledge and experience of stakeholders can help shape the final framework to remove all obstacles The President has given clear instructions, a framework within which we must move in the next few days to return to a new meeting under his chairmanship, hoping that we will have an agreed framework. in which we will move ".
Asked if on April 5 there will be a final proposal by which doctors will receive their salary increases, the Minister said that "it is not a one-dimensional approach, it does not concern financial demands. First of all, to make it absolutely clear, it is accepted by the Government that the salaries of doctors, especially public doctors, need to be reviewed and adjusted. It is accepted that further incentives should be given to doctors, especially to the excellent doctors who serve, to remain in the public sector and to attract even more to serve the public structures.
Therefore, in view of the autonomy and the structural changes that have been recognized as necessary, absolutely necessary for the improvement of the services received by the Cypriot citizen, on the one hand, the adjustments to the salary requests of the doctors must be combined with the practices that will be adopted in the of autonomy in order to increase productivity and therefore to increase the quality of the product that the Cypriot citizen enjoys from the Health services offered by the State ".
Asked if the Cypriot economy can withstand these increases, Mr. Pamporidis said that "the effort is to upgrade the services provided to citizens. For the upgrade that the State will pay, because exactly the compensation that the patient will receive in return for the quality that the patient will feel in his daily life in public hospitals, is worth the effort for the State to invest in him ".
Asked if April 5 is a milestone date for GESY, the Minister said that "I believe it is another milestone. This is not a milestone date. And we are slowly approaching the final destination ".
Asked to respond to criticism of the government, he said that those who follow the government's positions over time, "will find what I told you today, at least from last year, when it was stated that both the operating system and the doctors' salaries need to be reviewed. Specifically, the Council of Ministers has approved a series of measures to stem the tide of doctors fleeing following a decision and a meeting of political leaders on July 21, 2016.
The meeting had asked the Government to introduce measures that will stop the flight of doctors and in response to this call of the political leaders but also to the need that we recognize, it gave a first package last December by granting a surcharge to the doctors, the approval of 50 new positions of doctors in the public sector, the approval of a special liability allowance for those who perform the duties of directing clinics in our hospitals, as well as the provision of incentives for participation in training conferences and seminars both at home and abroad, as required by doctors . Recently, we passed the decision for the operation of overtime pilot programs in the afternoon to soften the waiting lists, always in consultation with the unions, while at the same time two or three other measures are being studied, targeting the first aid departments to give incentives. course ordered by the President of the Republic and the political leaders ".
Asked what will happen in case other professional sectors have requests, the Minister said that "in the issue of nurses, the Government had to deal with an issue that actually took on its dimensions in 2009 and justifying a request that is running out of time, acted in a way who acted. On the issue of doctors, the Government's policy was proclaimed on the need to adjust the salaries of doctors, in order to stem the tide of flight. In these two we acted and any other requests that will arise are issues that will be addressed by the Government and the competent Minister ".
Source: Liberal