Hospital management overhaul in the pipeline

The appointment of party cronies with no experience in running a healthcare facility to the management of the country’s hospitals is prompting an overhaul of the evaluation system.

The new legislation expected to be presented in September, sources have indicated, will introduce stricter experience-based criteria to the selection of top-tier hospital management, as well as a new hiring process, whereby the health minister will pick from among the top three candidates selected by a committee.

According to health services management expert Gogo Oikonomopoulou, the most important change needed is limiting the scope of the educational qualifications required. “Otherwise, people with degrees in theology, physical education and other unrelated professions can be appointed, as has been the case in the past, not to mention a hairdresser who happened to have a nursing degree.”