Filenews 16 May 2023 - by Marilena Panayi
Important changes are coming very soon to the GHS, as new services are being integrated, patients' rights to existing services for specific vulnerable groups of the population are increased and, at the same time, the HIO includes in the system quality and safety indicators of the services provided, which, in fact, will play an important role in the level of hospital compensation. The HIO is working feverishly, as the changes promoted in the GHS are many and important and official announcements are expected to be made within the next few days and will concern/affect both citizens and health service providers.
Specifically, the changes that are being promoted and are expected to be implemented during June and July concern patients who have had a stroke, children with various genetic syndromes, such as Down syndrome or autism, infants and toddlers who have specific dysfunctions, diabetics, kidney patients, rheumatic patients and other patients with neurological diseases. Also, other additions that are expected to be made to the GHS concern the entire population. For example, beneficiaries should be aware that the discharge they will receive from the hospital that will serve them must now include all the information they need regarding both the services they received during their hospitalization, as well as the actions they must take or the medicines they must take after leaving the hospital.
Analytically and chronologically, within June and for specific patient groups, the HIO promotes the following changes:
>> Increase in the number of visits to speech-language pathologists: According to the changes promoted by the HIO, the number of visits for people under 12 years of age with a diagnosis of autism, Down syndrome or other neurodevelopmental diseases (genetic syndromes) will increase from the current 18 per year to 36, with the right to another 12 visits if necessary and after a request has been evaluated by a special committee of the HIO. Furthermore, people over the age of 12 with traumatic brain injury or stroke, who are currently entitled to 9 visits, with the new arrangements will have the right to 36 visits in the first year after the episode / event, 24 visits in the second year and 12 visits in the third year after the episode / event. Also, children from 0-3 years old, who have various genetic or other dysfunctions, will have 24 visits, instead of the 18 they have today, for specific diagnoses (diseases). Finally, for people over the age of 12 with various diagnoses (who have a neurological condition), they will have 12 visits instead of 9 so far for each year.
>> Integration of podiatrists into the GHS: The services of podiatrists are expected, according to the GHS software, to serve around 25,000 patients, including people with pressure ulcers of all stages, people with type I or II diabetes with complications, people with amyloidosis, people with polyneuropathies, with chronic kidney disease (from stage 3 and above) and people with rheumatoid or diabetic arthritis. Each patient, in order to visit a podiatrist, will obtain a referral from a doctor (personal or specialist) and each referral will include up to 5 visits per year. During the visit the podiatrist will have the right to provide all the services the patient will need and he will be paid approximately €30 per visit.
For all beneficiaries within July:
>> With the implementation of the new way of reimbursement of hospitals, which is scheduled to be implemented in July, a criterion concerning the way in which patients' discharges are completed is included in the qualitative criteria that will be taken into account.
As explained to "F" by the senior officer of the HIO, Monika Kyriakou, "the organization, in its revised proposal which was sent to all GHS hospitals last Friday, has added to the criteria, on the basis of which hospitals will be able to increase their compensation, and the correct completion of discharges issued to patients. At the moment, we observe that the percentage of discharges that are completed correctly and fully and provide all the information that the patient needs does not exceed 10%, something that must be corrected both for the purpose of properly informing patients and the doctors who will serve them afterwards, as well as for control purposes by the HIO", Said.
In addition to the operation the patients underwent or the treatment they received, other information, such as the laboratory or imaging tests they undergone, the medications they received and other information, such as when the patient should see his doctor again, must be completed in the discharges, he added. what medications he should take, should or should not undergo certain tests, etc.'. Every month, the HIO will carry out a random check on the discharges of each hospital and accordingly will give additional compensation or not at the end of each year.
With quality and safety indicators the operation of hospitals
However, the revised proposal of the HIO to hospitals also includes the inclusion of quality and safety indicators in the operation of hospitals. This is, as Mrs Kyriacou said, a new addition, which aims to upgrade the services provided to citizens.
Some of the indicators that will be taken into account will be the rates of pressure sores during hospitalization. That is, the percentage of patients in the hospital who present pressure sores (wounds on the body) during their hospitalization, due to inadequate care or prolonged immobility, etc. "Also, the percentage of infections recorded in the hospital or the percentage of deaths due to pneumonia, etc."
In total, the senior HIO officer said, "ten quality and safety indicators have been defined and hospitals are expected to be informed in detail during the online meeting scheduled for Thursday."
The hospitals, he explained, will record the cases they will have each year and inform the HIO accordingly. The organization, for its part, will carry out regular random checks in hospitals to confirm whether the information provided to it is true.
BACKGROUND
In Parliament, those outside the GHS
On Thursday, the parliamentary health committee is expected to begin discussing DIKO's proposal that provides for the granting of the right to non-GHS doctors to remain in the hospitals where they work for 24 months after the integration of their hospitals into the system.
