GESY - CHANGES UNDERWAY TO IDENTIFY DISTORTIONS IN THE SYSTEM

 Filenews 12 November 2020 - by Marilena Panagi

Changes in the way the institution of the personal doctor in the General Health System works are being made by the Health Insurance Agency in order to correct identified distortions and to stem worrying phenomena such as, for example, the huge number of refer-to-specialist doctors issued mainly by personal doctors for adults.

At the same time, the THY also proceeds to arrangements that will link, to some extent, the productivity of the doctor, the evaluation of his work and generally his behaviour within the System, with the amount of their earnings. A proposal to that agreement, it is recalled, was submitted to the OSU and the Minister of Health several months ago.

"The functioning of the institution of the personal doctor, although it has greatly helped the GHS and the majority of our doctors, not all of them, have put enormous effort on our side. However, we have identified some weaknesses and for this reason, we will try to strengthen this institution for the benefit of both the System and the doctors who work properly but especially our beneficiaries," OA director Andreas Papakonstantinou said in a statement.

A big problem, Said Mr Papakonstantinou, "exists for example in the number of refer-ins issued by personal doctors, to specialist doctors". When international data "show us that the personal physician issues on average 20% - 25% of his patients referable for a specialist doctor and the other cases are managed at primary level and we see doctors issuing refer-ins to 70% of their patients, then surely we have to intervene".

This, he explained, "will be done with some regulations that are being promoted and certainly have to do with the way the beneficiaries themselves behave. For example, now, a refer for a specialist doctor, entitles the patient to three visits to a specialist doctor and we have seen several cases of beneficiaries who visit three different doctors of the same specialty for the same problem. Therefore, what we will do is to change the number of visits, to reduce them from 3 to 2, with the right of course to the doctor, if necessary for his patient to issue a new reference".

In addition to these, "we will now move on to another level of regulations that will gradually begin to affect the doctor's pay, in relation to how it works within the System". But this issue, Mr Papakonstantinou stressed, "we will see it in cooperation with our doctors, because it also has a legal aspect, we will agree and with them we will take some measures".