16 January 2025 - Audit Service Report on the Government Health Services Organization (OKYPY)
The Auditor General's Report on the Government Health Services Organization (OKYPY) for 2022 was discussed today before the Parliamentary Audit Committee.
Unfortunately, the overall picture is rather disheartening. Almost six years after the implementation of the GESY and while the OKYPY was created to lead state hospitals to administrative and financial autonomy, things do not seem to be progressing in this direction.
As stated in the general conclusions, "the operation of the Organization to date is characterized by serious gaps and weaknesses in terms of financial management, human resources issues and corporate governance. The actions taken by the Organization to become independent from state support and smoothly transition to conditions of full competition on 1/6/2025 did not have the desired result. Expenditures are increasing significantly due to the continuous increase in payroll costs. At the same time, the Organization is constantly losing share in the Health market and is not expected to achieve the specified autonomy, not even at the end of the revised deadline.
During the discussion, Alexandra Attalidou, Member of Parliament for Volt, stated that "Volt honors and supports people working in the health sector. A sector with a key role in the well-being of citizens. This was confirmed by the pandemic crisis when the burden was taken on with self-sacrifice by the officials of public hospitals. However, it is observed that costs are increasing, yet inpatients are decreasing by 20%, while outpatients are decreasing by 50%.
OKYPY must tackle the challenges it faces with transparency and good governance in order to preserve itself as a pillar of the general health system. Competition is essential and we will not allow any vested interest or mismanagement to jeopardize one of the most important achievements of the people, the GESY.
We call on the government to immediately address the problems highlighted by the Report regarding the operation of OKYPY as well as the risks prescribed for GESY, by preparing a realistic action plan for the autonomy of public hospitals.