Health Ministry sweetens pill | eKathimerini.com

After receiving the cold shoulder from private doctors unwilling to work in public hospitals and rural health centres, which are facing severe staff shortages and antagonising their unions by threatening repercussions, the government is making things worse by offering better conditions.

According to Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, rural areas will be divided into two categories, depending on the shortcomings of their public health systems and the lack of response to invitations to fill the gap. By including the latter criterion, for example, the not-so-remote Sparta will be elevated from the lower to the higher category, since the response has been zero.

Under the bill that the minister plans to submit to parliament this week, doctors who agree to a job in the higher category will receive a salary increase of 3,600 euros per year and double that amount for filling gaps in specialist fields where there are the greatest shortages.

Those holding positions in the second category, where shortages are less severe, will receive increases of 2,400 euros and 4,800 euros respectively, Georgiadis clarified. He added that the legislation will also give him more powers to tackle the problem of staff shortages more directly.