PM Mitsotakis on health: We want to radically reform the national health system
The government will focus intensely on fighting the problems in the health sector and in reforming it, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday at a New Democracy party meeting on health.
"We want to radically reform the National Health System," Mitsotakis said. "We have a comprehensive viewpoint about what has to happen in the health sector over the next four years, and we hope that citizens give us the opportunity to implement our plan," he added.
Among those plans a key component is evaluations of hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) throughout Greece, as well as hiring 10,000 nurses within the next four years, raising medical staff salaries, and improving working conditions, especially through an upgrade of emergency hospital services.
In addition, he said that in a nation with so many residents on islands, every Greek citizen should have access to medical services. It would also be key to focus on prevention policies, as in preventative tests. As for issue of mental health among children and teenagers, the prime minister spoke of a 'global timebomb' and said more funding should be diverted to this. Overall, 156 health centers should also be revamped to serve neighborhoods better.
During his first four-year term, Mitsotakis said, his government raised expenditures for health by 37%, added nursing staff, and raised doctors' wages by 10%. It also raised the number of ICUs, and introduced the concept of a personal physician.
His commitment, he said was to ensure that anything that could be saved financially by streamlining the NHS is reinvested in health, besides the funds already foressen by the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
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