1400 nurses and...Railway staff coming soon to a hospital near you!

The leadership of the Ministry of Health are fighting against time to rescue 1339 nurse employment positions in public hospitals. "The hiring of 1339 nurses must be completed by the 31st of December", declared Mr. Andreas Loverdos, Minister of Health, to the executive officers of 42 such hospitals that exist in the country, during their meeting on Friday; this was the third meeting between the Minister and the officers of the National Health System since October. Also present in today's meetings were secretaries Mr. Antonis Dimopoulos and Mr. Nikos Polizos.

As the Minister explained, in the case of failure to meet the employment quota until the 31st of December, most of the positions will be lost, since the government has agreed with the Troika that beginning in 2011, for every five retired public employees, only one will be hired.

"Express"-style employment opportunities for nurses

To make it clear what is going to transpire in the Health sector next year if the 1399 positions are not filled, Mr. Loverdos stated that according to the government's agreements with the Troika, only 200 of the now available 1399 positions will still be available in 2011. The rest will be lost.

He demanded that the officials hasten the process, underlining that when the lists of candidates are released within the next ten days, the officials should go ahead and ask said candidates to fill out the required forms to complete the procedure which will lead to them being hired. People from within the Ministry of Health handed out copies to the hospital officers, in a renewed effort to have them ready to accept candidacies.

It is reasonable to assume that this 28-day process once required...years to be completed. The undertaking is daunting to say the least.

Transfers from the Hellenic Railways Organization to hospitals


The National Health System is confident that it will also acquire paramedics, technicians and people of various needed specializations, as well as the aforementioned nurses. During today's meeting, the leadership of the Ministry of Health emphasized official' attention towards the HRO (ΟΣΕ) and to sections of the Public Sector where transfers of superfluous personnel take place. The Minister urged them to seek out and obtain what they need from the specializations within the existing extra personnel in those sectors.

Congratulations but also written guidelines towards the executive officers

The computerization of hospitals, especially when stocks of medicine and various materials are concerned, was another of the focal points of the meeting. The Ministry officials appeared to be content with the ameliorated situation on the matter of computerization concerning the Memorandum Hospitals (The biggest hospitals in the country). As Mr. Loverdos highlighted: "hospitals will have attained complete computerization much earlier than the deadline of next March".

On all that concerns their financial responsibilities, the officials received strict guidelines on what to do in the coming months. To avoid any misconception on the guideline material and due dates, employees of the Ministry of Health endeavoured to hand out the thickly-printed four-page manual to the officials upon the latter's entrance to the meeting room.

The officials are called upon to obey the above and deliver data on the medical services costs that immigrants, both illegal or legal, require. They are also supposed to take inventory of the materials and medicine stock available in their hospital and compare it with others.