Health minister: aim is to tackle all weaknesses within Gesy

One of the biggest challenges in Gesy is clamping down on abuse in the system and ensuring quality services are offered to patients, Health Minister Popi Kanari said on Thursday at the HealthCare Conference.

She said the ultimate goal is to tackle any weaknesses within Gesy and place patients, along with their rights in the centre of policies that aim to ensure the national health scheme’s viability.

Kanari spoke of the need to differentiate provider reimbursement models based on quality criteria and performance indicators, promote incentives and disincentives where there is a distortion of the supply-demand relationship, establish clinical guidelines with the gradual development of treatment protocols, and use software applications to enhance speed and accuracy in identifying abuses and unusual behaviours.

The minister also referred to the challenges in having sufficient pharmaceutical and medical devices, as well as access to innovative medicine.

Where the state health services (Okypy) are concerned, the biggest challenge is achieving financial and administrative autonomy.

Kanari told attendees at the conference that Okypy must exert stronger efforts in that direction, while having more effective organizational and audit mechanisms is mandatory.

Okypy has taken up the implementation of development programs in public hospitals from the recovery and resilience plan, amounting to €47.7 million gradually by 2026, she added.

According to the minister, the Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) is also facing a lot of challenges in monitoring and managing Gesy, while also juggling the budget.

Nonetheless, Kanari pledged the health ministry will continue to introduce legal regulations, strategic health programs based on international scientific standards, purchasing new equipment and continuous evaluation of the health system.

The ultimate aim is to offer services with a human-centric character that serves to not only manage patients but promote health.