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Today’s delivery of 50 ICU beds for the coronavirus to the “Sotiria” hospital seems more like a window that opens than a substance, since Prime Minister To say that it is committed to hiring the necessary personnel, however the reality that the representatives of doctors and nurses speak of is completely different from what the government says.
The practice of forced travel instead of conscription.
Indeed, questions about how government-announced ICUs will eventually function without the necessary specialized medical and nursing staff, raised by POEDIN President Michalis Giannakos, OENGE complaints in recent days have heightened concerns about how the NSS will withstand pressure, such as current government practice to forced relocation of doctors instead of recruitment leads to weakening of the system rather than strengthening it.
It should be noted that the complaints from the health unions for this practice were made precisely because, given the operation of 50 ICUs in Sotiria, the government chose to transfer doctors and in some cases other specialties from other hospitals to this hospital.
And all this at a time when the pandemic is on the rise nearly half of coronavirus ICUs are fullOf the 278 ICU beds available in the country, 113 are occupied.
Staff on loan
According to Mr. Giannakos, of the 50 beds, 12 are currently operating with “borrowed personnel” from other hospitals in Attica, while in the country’s hospitals there are 80 fully equipped ICU beds but closed due to lack of necessary personnel.
“It is necessary to hire permanent specialized personnel. We cannot add as ICU beds the temporary conversion by coronavirus of cardiac surgery units, negative pressure units, etc. The bed that has a ventilator without the other necessary equipment is not considered ICU”, says the President of POEDIN and stresses that for doctors not to face the phenomenon of choosing those who will be treated in ICU from the waiting list, 3500 beds are required.
The description of the situation by Mr. Giannakos on the occasion of the current inauguration of the ICU beds in “Sotiria” is very typical.
“A major initiative by the HELLENIC PARLIAMENT to donate 50 ICU beds to the NSS. It shows that when funds are available, pathogens in the system are corrected.
However, the question is when the 50 beds in the ICU will be operational. The 12 beds are operated directly by loan staff. In order for this to happen, the nurses and doctors were transferred from other hospitals in Attica to Sotiria. In fact, hospitals that have coronavirus clinics and that are why their operation becomes unsafe as reported by their unions.
The big problem with the system over time is that due to understaffing, dozens of fully equipped ICU beds were never fully equipped. Today, 80 ICU beds are closed in hospitals, ready and equipped for lack of staff. POEDIN raised the issue in relevant research.
We hope that the same does not happen in SOTIRIA. With personnel transfers, ICUs are not open.
Waiting lists
It is necessary to hire permanent specialized personnel. We cannot add as ICU beds the temporary conversion by coronavirus of cardiac surgery units, negative pressure units, etc. The ICU is not considered a bed that has a ventilator without the other necessary equipment.
Elderly patients with coronavirus end up in hospitals that do not have an ICU.
If the Ministry of Health does not rush to operate more ICUs with the right personnel in the winter, we will again face the tragic situation of intensivists who choose which of the waiting list will be treated in ICU. This is not new. It occurs every winter in hospitals with seasonal flu and other illnesses. Especially now with the pandemic. According to the hospital beds in our country, 3,500 ICU beds should be operational ”. 
Weakening
It should be noted what OENGE reported a few days ago and in fact due to the forced transfers of doctors from other hospitals to Sotiria for the operation -as it turns out- of the specific ICUs that were inaugurated today. OENGE spoke about the weakening of clinics that were already tragically understaffed and came into conflict with the leadership of the Ministry of Health and Vassilis Kontozamanis.
In this context, OENGE noted:
“one. The safe operation of ICU beds requires an adequate number of specialized medical and nursing staff. Intensive care is a specialization and training lasts 2 years and not 3 months. Much more does not last only … 2 hours (!) As tried to do with the “fast-paced seminars” in some of these cases of forced relocation of colleagues. The government had the whole year to hire the necessary number of permanent specialized medical and nursing staff to staff the ICU beds. Not only did it not do it, not only does it not have the corresponding design but it is firmly committed to the “cost-benefit logic” defending the travel policy, the “patches” that half close gaps to open others. The written order of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health 1/10 (notified 5/10) on the forced transfer of doctors to the ICU “Sotiria”, included many doctors without experience in Intensive Care. That is why, in a public announcement on 8/10, even the five-member advisory committee on UCI issues, appointed by the ministry itself, claims (together with the Hellenic Scientific Society for Intensive Care) that it was not even involved informed about it. the method.
Deficiencies
2. The leadership of the Ministry of Health does not try any more or less to convince us that there is an overabundance of doctors in the hospitals from which doctors are transferred.
He mentions that in the “Red Cross” hospital from where a doctor is transferred (according to official document 14/10) (instead of the three mentioned in the written order 1/10) there are 49 Special Pathology doctors (Internal). The ministry does not say that of the 49 doctors, only 22 are qualified and that the remaining 27 are specialized. It does not mention that of the 22 specialists, only 12 (permanent and auxiliary) are in the 2 pathology clinics that have 12 vacancies out of a total of 24, that is, 50% of the vacancies are vacant. It does not mention that the other 10 specialized pathologists serve in other departments (ICU, ICU, etc.) and not in the 2 Pathology clinics. It does not mention that the recently issued transfer order (1/10, notified 5/10) by the ministry affected 3 of the 12 fully specialized pathologists from the 2 pathology clinics. Why doesn’t the ministry mention how many doctor vacancies there are in the clinics where the doctors move and how many monthly shifts the doctors do in the respective clinics? 
Delays permanent hiring
3. The leadership of the Ministry of Health affirms that by the end of 2020 the ESY will be reinforced with 1,381 permanent doctors. Let’s assume that trials for the positions that have been advertised will be completed in 2 months, which is unlikely given that of the 940 positions that were advertised in 2/2020, only 500 were completed 8 months later. This in no way means that the system is strengthened with 1,381 doctors in percentage replacing doctors who retire by retirement. In any case, the needs are multiple if one takes into account that the vacancies according to the most inappropriate organization charts (from 2012) exceed 6000.
4. The leadership of the Ministry of Health was unacceptably slow to announce the permanent ICU physician positions to staff the beds that it is now trying to staff with forced relocations. The announcement was made just a few weeks ago and in such a way (for example, exclusion of Anesthesiologists and Intensive Care Pathologists in the 7th RAE and elsewhere) that it will most likely be blocked by lawsuits.
When reality doesn’t suit
Conclusion: when reality does not suit the government, so much the worse for reality.
While the leadership of the Ministry of Health after the interventions of OENGE and EINAP withdrew from the initial order for the forced relocation of 25 doctors (Secretary General Kotsiopoulos document 10/1/20 which was released on 10/5/20 by the one who had still reacted and the five-member advisory committee of the ICC appointed by the ministry itself) does not admit to withdrawing, but continues to lie and rent by insisting on communication tricks to embellish “anti-popular policies” and not on the essence of patient safety, insofar as the ICU of “Sotiria” as well as the departments of the other hospitals.
We demand that the government proceed immediately with the permanent hiring necessary, to cover the total of 6,000 vacancies, for the development and staffing of the UCI and the other departments and clinics. “The public health system is not protected with alchemy and lies.”
Finally, it is pointed out that opposition parties Commenting on the presence of the Prime Minister in Sotiria for the inauguration of the 50 ICU beds from the donation of Parliament, they highlight the need for the permanent hiring of the necessary and specialized personnel to put into operation the ICUs that are being opened.
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