New incentives planned by the Ministry of Health to attract nurses to the NHS will be announced tomorrow, May 12, World Nurses Day.
As State Minister of Health, Marios Themistokleous, speaking to the television station “ERTNEWS”, the issue of nursing staff is one of the biggest problems not only of the Greek health system, but of the European systems health systems.
“Nursing staff has been decreasing more and more in recent years,” he said.
He noted that on May 12, World Nurses’ Day, there will be announcements by the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with the aim of providing more incentives for staffing hospitals with nurses.
In response to the question of whether the main problem is the salary, Themistocleous stressed that salary is indeed a key criterion. However, he noted that working conditions are equally important, as the nursing profession is a tough profession.
At the same time, he said that “the Ministry of Health is trying to formulate the appropriate framework to improve working conditions in hospitals” and added that “the platform for auxiliary staff has already been opened, with several applications in Attica, while in the coming days it will be opened for the rest of the country and the Region”. The deputy minister pointed out that a great deal depends on nursing staff for the operation of hospitals and for the quality of care that patients receive.
