“It is wrong to use the deaths in the pandemic micropolitically,” said Deputy Health Minister Asimina Gaga, while discussing the motion of censure in Parliament.
Opposition MPs who had raised the issue of the number of dead in Greece in the pandemic had preceded the podium, with the characteristic statement of SYRIZA Secretary Dimitris Tzanakopoulos that at least half would have been alive if the government had actually supported the NSS, the Deputy Minister pointed out that for the last 10 years the staff, equipment, health care benefits have been constantly decreasing and most importantly, there has been a large outflow of doctors abroad. “So for many years the NSS was not in good shape and the pandemic found the system with less staff, older and with fewer means,” said Ms Gaga, noting that a plan was in place, staff worked together and its first wave The pandemic went very well because the Mitsotakis government took precautionary measures, took measures early, along with the lock down, and the hospitals were able to deal with the first wave effectively. “The pandemic was treated extremely well in the first wave,” he said, adding that the second wave, especially in northern Greece, was extremely severe, with massive admissions but the problems of hospital needs were addressed, and there were deaths but “we never reached level of deaths in Italy “.
“Poland, a country with a good health system, has 2746 deaths per million inhabitants, Belgium has 2454 deaths per million inhabitants. Italy has 2404 deaths per million inhabitants. England has 2260 deaths per million inhabitants. Greece has 2120 “There are many deaths per million. Yes there are many deaths. Clearly there are many. But clearly not the most in Europe,” said the Deputy Minister of Health, stressing that huge steps have been taken in the midst of a pandemic to support the NSS. Ms. Gaga pointed out that 80% of deaths are unvaccinated, deaths in younger people are low and added: “For all the NSS people who are fighting to do the best they can, it is terrible to use deaths micropolitically. We must all see together how we can help. That is what we must do. To use deaths for political reasons is wrong. and without a break “.
“There was prevention, there was a plan, the beds in the ICU were more than doubled, more than 12,000 were hired,” said the deputy minister, who also answered the question why no more intensivists are hired: “I simply tell you, we do not have them. Intensive care counts fewer intensive care specialists than we need.Medical specialties are not something you can push a button and have them the next day.To have intensivists we need to make sure to put in a training program doctors who already have another specialty. “There has to be a plan. This plan is not what this government does not have. There was no plan in previous governments. We are changing the way we specialize. We are starting to connect the specialties we produce with the needs of the people.”
Regarding the complaints that there was no access to the hospitals due to the snowfall, Asimina Gaga stated: “it has been heard that 20 hospitals did not have access. There was no hospital without access. What happened was that some trees fell in the 320 acres of Sotiria Hospital “It’s logical. They fell on an oxygen tube. The problem was fixed immediately and there was no danger to the patient. Sotiria has 4 km of roads and some were cut off. He also said that all the oxygen cylinders arrived at the hospitals, despite the bad weather, to add: “as far as the Ministry of Health was concerned, the issues that arose due to bad weather were addressed and the management was correct”.
“There must be a plan and there is. We rely on the people of the NSS, whom I want to thank again, because what they offer every day is very important for all of us,” said Ms. Gaga. vaccines: “vaccines were preceded by agreements with the EU, there was an agreed price for the whole of Europe and the doses were agreed, depending on the population of each member country. So talking about deals on vaccines is at least foolish.”
Commenting on what Asimina Gaga said, the parliamentary representative of SYRIZA Panos Skourletis said that indeed during the period of the memoranda the NSS had a declining course, but it was the SYRIZA government that overturned this downward course, opened structures that had closed, returned people who were persecuted, the 120 VOLUMES were made, the uninsured gained access to the hospitals. Referring to the problems with the snowfall, Panos Skourletis said that in the Mediterranean, which remained closed, it is not only the “Sotiria” hospital. He also criticized Mr. Patoulis, saying that although he was photographed with the “beasts” that would clean the streets, he exercised a discriminatory policy and did not send machines to areas that the mayors did not like, “as he did with Chalandri where the machines did not go. Vrilissia and Penteli but when they arrived in Chalandri, they came back “. He also said that the numbers she cites for the dead, Ms. Gaga, are from the beginning of the pandemic and are not the data of the last months that “Greece is in the first and second place continuously and for this situation the government has very serious responsibilities “. Panos Skourletis criticized the government for not increasing the salaries of the health workers who leave the NSS, because it does not include the doctors and nurses of the first line in the heavy and unhealthy. “The deals have been made. You know it very well. They are about the tests. The mayors who achieved the best prices have ruined you,” said the SYRIZA parliamentary representative, complaining that the government’s plan is to open space for businessmen. Finally, he called on the deputy minister, what he says about micro-politics in relation to the issue of the dead, to address to the prime minister because he was the one who said in the summer about the fires in Evia that “now we count burned acres but in Mati we counted burnt coffins”.
The parliamentary representative of the Movement for Change, Nadia Giannakopoulou, described it as unthinkable “to have 100 dead every day, to lose a village every day, and for the government to cultivate a climate of complacency”. “At this moment, we have surpassed Spain and France, which had many dead when the vaccine had not yet arrived. But now we have the vaccine. And you are giving a message of complacency and relaxing the measures. “Remember who said that? The prime minister said that. Unfortunately the pandemic is still here. You have made many mistakes,” said Nadia Giannakopoulou, who stressed that there were serious omissions and oligarchy and that the government was the only one to act quickly. , are the derogatory contracts with direct procurement assignments, without any control and without any accountability. He also noted that the government talks about recruitment but does not specify that these are recruitments of auxiliary and not permanent in the NSS. “Excessive mortality in our country is the result of the huge inequalities that exist between the center and the periphery. You have responsibilities, you have made big mistakes and again a wrong message is given to relax the measures.”
The parliamentary representative of ND Giannis Vroutsis also intervened in the discussion, calling on Asimina Gaga to repeat how many ICUs there were in 2019 and how many there are today, what is the number of staff hired at the NSS during a pandemic and to say that the days of snowfall hospitals operated.
“The ICU beds were 557 in 2019 and are 1200 today, with the possibility of increase due to the MAF. It is clearly more and the staff is much more. There are indeed auxiliary, but the procedures for permanent require more time, “We are changing the criteria to complete the procedures faster,” said the deputy minister, while regarding the snowfall he reiterated that accessibility was present in all hospitals and on-call duty was normal, catering was also provided everywhere and therefore there was no serious issue in hospitals these days. .
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital

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