A new legislative initiative aimed at encouraging the repatriation of Greek doctors trained in the US was announced by the Greek Prime Minister on Thursday, calling for the simplification of the process of recognizing their medical qualifications in Greece.
Prime Minister Mitsotakis made the announcement at the Prix Galien Greece 2025 awards ceremony in Athens, saying that the government will submit a bill to Parliament next week that will allow Greek medical professionals who have been trained in the United States to have their specialty and subspecialty titles automatically recognized in Greece, provided that the titles will “be valid and will correspond to positions available” in the country.
“This way, a road is paved for the repatriation of distinguished scientists from the United States who want to return to our country and want to support the National Healthcare System,” Mitsotakis said. “We want these scientists to see their future in our country.”
Currently, doctors returning to Greece face a very complex and time-consuming bureaucratic process to validate their US qualifications. Under the new law, eligible doctors would be allowed to apply directly to the Panhellenic Medical Association (PIS) to have their US-acquired medical qualifications recognized without further review.
In contrast, Greek doctors with medical qualifications acquired in the European Union have their titles recognized in Greece automatically.
New initiative will ease the problems US-trained doctors face on repatriation to Greece
Greece has been trying to lure back thousands of medical professionals in order to address a shortage of doctors in the country and reverse the dramatic brain drain that intensified during Greece’s financial crisis.
According to the Federation of Hospital Doctors’ Associations of Greece, 49 percent of the country’s patients are unable to find a doctor and 24 percent don’t have access to necessary medical examinations. Moreover, they point out that medical staff, severely underpaid compared to other European countries, have been reduced to half compared to 2009.
Last month, Kathimerini reported on the ordeal of four highly-trained pediatric specialists who returned to Greece after prestigious medical careers in the United States. Despite meeting all legal and professional requirements, the Greek Ministry of Health had yet to recognize their specialization, leaving them in bureaucratic limbo for two years.
‘They are devaluing our careers. They make us regret coming back,” Filia Dimitriadi, a pediatric endocrinologist trained at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia, told Kathimerini.
Some of the four doctors interviewed returned because of Greece’s “BrainReGain” campaign, which promises to welcome professionals with open arms, while others, including paediatric gastroenterologist Konstantionos Siafakas, who was trained at Harvard, were driven by nostalgia for Greece.
Siafakas describes the ordeal as “a direct contradiction” to Greece’s efforts to encourage expatriate professionals to return.
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