In his speech today in the Parliament on the draft law of the Ministry of Health, “Completion of the psychiatric reform”, the Nikos Androulakis attacked Adonis Georgiadis and the government saying that he is dealing with “a leading issue of Greek society in a provocatively irresponsible way”.
“You’re putting profit over public goods again. This time the mental health sector has been targeted with a series of changes, which are coming to add to the attack, which you have unleashed on the public health system and more broadly on the welfare state” he said addressing the government and added that “this is another step , which is slowly eroding the social rights and protection of our most vulnerable fellow citizens in order to gradually privatize public goods, such as health”.
He stated that the newly established “hydrocephalic, over-concentrating” National Organization for the Prevention and Rehabilitation of Addictions will include all organizations such as OKANA, KETHEA, 18ANO, “ARGO”, “IANOS”, “DIAPLOUS”, etc. “but in the bill there is no guarantee and the operation of prevention centers is not guaranteed, paving the way for the dismantling of public mental health and addiction structures.”
“The policy on mental health, according to the New Republic, is limited exclusively to the “de-addiction and detoxification” of “addicted persons”, i.e. diagnosis and treatment, without the slightest reference to the pillars of prevention, rehabilitation and social reintegration” emphasized N. Androulakis.
Sustainability for 75 prevention centers until 2027
He also said that the bill recognizes the viability of the 75 prevention centers currently operating across the country “only until 2027, when the current programming contract expires.
Noting that the specific centers are the main implementer of addiction prevention programs, he warned that “the possible interruption of their operation puts the contractors at risk on the one hand, with all that entails the loss of experienced staff, and on the other hand causes insecurity for the patients and their families”.
“This bill also abolishes an important institution that reports directly to the Prime Minister, that of the National Coordinator for Drugs, with the responsibilities for planning, coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the National Policy to deal with addictions being assigned to the newly established institution President of E.O.P.A.E., who has the ability based on his powers to establish or abolish units, programs, bodies, structures” he added.
He noted, in addition, that “the bill also provides for the transfer of the abolished organizations of the two remaining psychiatric hospitals, the Psychiatric Hospital of Attica and the Psychiatric Hospital of Thessaloniki, to the National Network of Mental Health Services, without any planning and assurance for their future. Finally, the rest of the NHS structures are completely disconnected from mental health.”
“It is certain that patients in the future will turn to the private sector to deal with their problems, because this bill paves the way for the commercialization of mental health. But how many of the patients can afford to turn to the private sector to seek treatment and break the cycle of stigma, marginalization and ultimately dependency?’ emphasized N. Androulakis.
“At PASOK – Movement for Change we believe that addiction and mental health are not individual affairs, but are social rights, which should be public and free with a focus on the individualized needs of everyone” he underlined.
He noted, among other things, that “the emphasis must be placed on prevention and social reintegration and not only on addiction and detoxification.”
The health situation is dire
“Finally, we must support the workers in the prevention centers, the patients and their families. In closing with regard to the mental health bill, an observation, so revealing of your pseudo-reformist estrus: Nowhere in the conditions and selection criteria for mental health deputy governors is there even a single prerequisite related to mental health issues,” he said.
N. Androulakis also referred to the “dire situation in which the entire public health system has fallen”.
He spoke about the “conflict that has opened up in recent days between the government and private doctors, which started with the request of private doctors to cover certain on-calls per month in public hospitals” and expressed his particular concern about the “threat to private doctors that their access to electronic prescribing will be cut off if they refuse their request and vice versa”.
“The situation leads to a dead end at the expense of the patients and the responsibility lies exclusively with the government of the New Democracy. Her policies devalue and abandon the public health system, leaving the NHS to collapse,” he said.
“Citizens’ health is being degraded and a valuable means of serving patients is being used for petty political purposes. The purpose of the e-prescribing system is to serve patients, not doctors. The deprivation of the right to prescribe in a country, which is already plagued by understaffed health structures, works punitively for the citizens, he added.
“You are blackmailing the doctors and the people are paying for it,” he said, addressing the government.
“The modernization and reorganization of the E.S.Y. it will only be solved with coordinated policies aimed at the restoration and reconstruction of the welfare state, which is gradually being dismantled in favor of serving powerful economic interests” emphasized N. Androulakis and denounced the government and the Minister of Health for “a colossal failure”, for the creation of oligopolies also in health that increase the cost of everyday life of citizens who pay the second highest private costs for health in all of Europe.
“As long as, Mr. Georgiadis, you baptize reforms” patches, putting the problems under the carpet, you will make a hole in the water” said N. Androulakis and concluded his speech:
“Understaffing and underfunding lead to the marginalization of health and thousands of citizens due to their financial situation. No state can truly survive and prosper if it is not a rule of law and a social state. It is now urgent to devote all our energies to defending the public character of mental health and the public health system as a whole.
After all, according to the definition given in its statute in 1946 by the World Health Organization, health is defined as “a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”, which implies that it is our duty to we defend both mental health structures and the public character of the health system as a whole. Only in this way can we responsibly and consistently defend a social state that guarantees and ensures equal access to care, prevention and treatment services, without class or other exclusions”.
Source: RES
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