Nurses fleeing exhausting working conditions in ESY
Long working hours and low pay are forcing hundreds of nurses out of Greece’s National Health System (ESY), resulting in even greater shortages in personnel.
“We went through the whole [Covid-19] pandemic working overtime. And what did we get in return? A round of applause,” says Panagiota K., who left her job as a nurse at a cardiology clinic of a public hospital in Attica after 15 years to work as a school nurse.
It is estimated that there are currently almost 14,500 staff nurses and 2,500 assistants working in public hospitals. About 1,500 staff nurses have left ESY in the last four years alone.
According to the Greek nursing federation PASYNO-ESY, in the next two years approximately 15-20% of the nurses will retire, as the last great recruitment wave took place in 1990-1995.
In Greece there are 0.4 nurses per bed, when the OECD average is 2.03. According to international quality indicators, in pathology clinics there should be one nurse per shift for every five patients. This means that in a clinic with 40 patients there should be eight nurses. At the moment, especially in the afternoon and night shifts, there is one and – sometimes – two nurses, while there are hospitals where the night shift is covered only with nursing assistants.
