Opposition MPs seek answers on delays in hospital appointments

The secretary of opposition New Democracy and 26 lawmakers with the conservative party on Tuesday challenged Health Minister Andreas Xanthos to respond to the findings of a newspaper survey into the operation of the appointments hotline for public hospitals.

In a written request, the conservative lawmakers, among them former health minister Adonis Georgiadis, pointed to a series of findings made by Eleftheros Typos daily in a survey published last month.

For the survey, newspaper staff placed dozens of calls to the 1535 hotline used to book appointments at public hospital morning clinics in a bid to investigate claims of huge delays by citizens seeking free consultations with experts in the public health system, as afternoon consultations come at a fee.

In their written question in Parliament, the ND MPs listed the survey’s findings and pointed to some of the more striking instances: an appointment with an endocrinologist at the Aghia Sofia Children’s Hospital could not be scheduled before November 30, the neurological clinic of the Gennimatas General Hospital in Athens was fully booked through December 22 and the Laiko hospital’s allergy specialist was not available until end-June.

The survey also found that several clinics and hospitals are not even registered on the 1535 hotline, particularly in rural areas.