Talk

The significance of SNF hospitals within Greece’s healthcare map

Thursday June 23, 09:45, Lobby NLG

Marios Themistokleous, General Secretary of Primary Health Care, Hellenic Ministry of Health
Moritz Spellenberg, Associate Director, Llewelyn Davies
Aimilia Makryalea, Head of Planning and Development of Healthcare Policies, 4th Health District of Macedonia-Thrace
Charalambos Roussos, SNF Health Consultant
Emmanuel Roilides, Professor of Pediatrics - Infectious Diseases, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Kyriakos Anastasiadis, Head, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The three new SNF hospitals being created through the Health Initiative focus on a forward-looking vision for health and contribute to the creation of state-of-the-art infrastructure in regional areas, developments in pediatric patient care, strengthening of access to diagnostics, reduction of length of stay in hospital, and involvement of the local community in the work done to its benefit.

"When we handed over the Cultural Center to the state, we were asked, “Why are you giving this to the state?” We are not giving it to the state, we are giving it to the citizens. We know that governments and the state forget that they should serve citizens. We are building three new hospitals and delivering them to the state. We believe in the state, and we believe that we must have a common vision.” Inter alia, the Co-President of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), Andreas Dracopoulos, answered the questions: “How will these hospitals meet the standards of excellence?” “How will they serve the vision?” and “How will they be integrated into the system?” before giving the floor to the General Secretary of Primary Care at the Ministry of Health, Marios Themistokleous.

"We treat this donation and the hospitals as an urge to move forward. These hospitals will serve as beacons showing where the public health system should head tomorrow," said Marios Themistocleous on the importance of the new SNF General Hospital of Komotini, the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki and the new SNF General Hospital of Sparta. He referred to the obligations of the state regarding access to hospitals, i.e. the construction of roads and the improvement of the existing road network, clarified that the relevant tender procedures are on schedule, stressed that the obligation of the state includes "addressing the understaffing plaguing Greece, so that hospitals can operate from day one" and assured that the announcement of posts for staff will be made at such a pace, "so that we have the hospitals fully operational in their full development stage."

Earlier, speaking specifically about the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki in Filyros, the mayor of Pylaia-Chortiatis, Ignatios Kaitezidis, had made special reference to the constant, regular briefing of the residents about the project and its development and, by extension, to the importance of the involvement of the very people who will use it in the project. "This request had been pending for 30 years. It is the only pediatric hospital that will exist in Northern Greece. Providing for children makes us excited. This hospital, as I see it taking shape, is a hospital that would easily be built in New York and we in Greece would just admire it from afar. But it is being built in Greece and this is admirable,” he concluded.

"It is a milestone project, it is the first tertiary pediatric center outside Athens," said Moritz Spellenberg, also for the SNF University Pediatric Hospital of Thessaloniki, explaining that, as part of an integrated health care system, "it will facilitate the provision of tertiary health services and we hope that it will later more widely cover the Balkans." Regarding the new SNF General Hospital of Sparta, he referred to the added value of reducing the length of stay in hospital, to the significant addition of a mental health unit with ten beds, and to the increase in the capacity of operating theatres. “There is a very distinct objective behind all of this: enhancing access to diagnostics is of the utmost importance. Also, too many day surgeries can be performed in a shorter time,” Spellenberg noted. Talking about the new SNF General Hospital of Komotini, he referred to the conversion of surgical incidents to one-day surgical events, enhancing imaging capabilities, and the energy efficiency of the infrastructure.

For her part, Emilia Makrialea, referring to the contribution of end-users to the hospitals in Komotini and Thessaloniki, said that "end-users could not only be informed but also make observations that could then be incorporated" and noted both the many additions to the clinical program and the reform of the human resources plan, since "the staff who will work there should be able to make the most of" the infrastructure. Kyriakos Anastasiadis also stressed the importance of education, focusing on the opportunity that international medical students will have to complete their training in a state-of-the-art hospital, the SNF University Pediatric Hospital in Thessaloniki.