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- Ελληνικά
Following today's publication in Phileleftheros regarding the decision of the President of the Republic to make the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) responsible for referring patients (beneficiaries of the General Health System (GHS)) abroad, with the exception of 'very-very urgent cases', which will require immediate handling, and whose responsibility will remain with the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Audit Office notes the following:
(a) The overseas referral scheme has been highly pathogenic and problematic for too many years. The first attempts at consolidation were initiated by Minister Stavros Malas (2011-2013) and were substantially promoted by the current Director General of the MoH. This does not mean that there are not some remaining problems, which were documented in our Special Reports on the NHS (20.8.2018, 20.4.2021 and 21.3.2022).
(b) In our last Report (21.3.2022) it is explicitly stated that the plan to subsidize patients abroad from the NHS is not in line with Article 33 of the General Health System Law and that our Office recommends that any policy decision be regulated by legislation.
[C] [C] Our Service has, at the same time, documented in recent years very serious pathologies and abuses in the SHI and highlighted cases where the SHI has handled issues in a way that, compared to the NHS, has left it particularly exposed.
[D] Based on the above, our Service maintains the position that the decision on who will be responsible for the management of the programme is a political one. That decision, whatever it may be, requires the adoption of new regulations to ensure the integrity of the process. Under certain conditions, it may also require an amendment to the legislation.
(e) With regard to the emerging decision to split responsibility according to the urgency (or extreme urgency) of each case, we consider this to be bad practice. By definition, serious health issues requiring referral abroad are generally urgent and therefore separation would certainly create problems and ambiguity of responsibilities and therefore liability. Therefore, since the President has decided to transfer the relevant responsibility to the OAS, it is our view that this should be complete and without exceptions (except, of course, for non-GSF beneficiaries).
(f) In our recent audit of the MOH, we noted that the Minister of Health requested on 8.8.2023 and received on 10.8.2023 a complete list, for the period 1.3.2023 - 31.7.2023, of all patient referrals abroad, laboratory and other specialized analyses abroad and air travel. A copy of the lists was subsequently requested and received by our Office for future audit purposes. It is up to the Minister to decide whether to respond to the constant whispers that named persons are on these lists and that ordinary citizens or foreign nationals are absent.
(g) If a relevant Bill or Regulations are tabled in Parliament, our Service will express its informed views and recommendations on the matter there as well.
(NΓ/ΣΧ)
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