Making good on his threat, Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis has ordered the cancellation of contracts of 700 striking doctors working for the public health care system EOPYY and said the government may even fold the organization and replace it with a private system.
Georgiadis, who had been battling with the doctors who refused to work in protest against a scheme they said would see many of them being fired anyway, ran out of patience after warning them he would act if they didn’t stop their strike. They had earlier voted to extend it into next week.
Reports said that the administration of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who is being squeezed by the country’s international lenders to privatize state enterprises, now may include EOPYY, shut it down completely as the public broadcaster ERT was and replace it with a new administrative staff and purchase health services on behalf of the state.
But there’s wiggle room for the doctors to come back. “My door is open for negotiations,” said Georgiadis. “The government cannot allow people to think they are a special cases and that everyone else is less important.”
EOPYY doctors were unmoved and said they would keep striking – even though they are technically without their jobs anyway – and would refuse to to talk with Georgiadis.
“We intend to strike until December 9, as planned, because we refuse to give our consent to a nightmarish reality that aims to dismantle healthcare,” the doctors’ federation said in a statement.
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