Bringing order to chaos of surgery waiting lists

With a draft bill made available for public scrutiny (opengov.gr) until Tuesday, the Health Ministry is aiming to capture the true picture at a central level regarding waiting lists for routine surgeries at public hospitals.

The proposal seeks the establishment of a single list of surgeries on an online platform for all National Health System (ESY) and university hospitals, replacing the existing lists that are currently compiled and posted per hospital. 

With the single list, which will be implemented by online social insurance platform IDIKA, the ministry will have better data for scheduling surgeries in the public health sector, making it easier to cross-check data so that “double registration” of the same patients in different hospitals’ lists will be avoided. 

“We need this to start cleaning up the list. To see where we are and then decide what we can do to reduce waiting times for surgeries,” a ministry official told Kathimerini.