Filenews 29 May 2025 - by Marilena Panagi
Only with documented training will doctors work in the GHS Emergency Departments, while professionals working in the patient screening teams are also required to submit their training certificates to the Health Insurance Organization.
The transitional period for the operation of the A&E of the General Health System ends and as of June 1, the HIO proceeds with the implementation of the quality criteria plan it has prepared and the full implementation of the circular that provides for emergency care services within the GHS, but some of its provisions have not been implemented until now.
With this in mind, the HIO has already informed all hospitals that have A&E that from Sunday, it will be mandatory, among other things, the availability of doctors of specific specialties on a 24-hour basis to serve patients.
It is recalled that the Organization's plan includes eight different qualitative criteria, the application of which will be able to increase the compensation of hospitals by up to €20 for each incident they serve.
Deadline until June 30 for doctors' certificates
"Doctors who register to provide emergency health care services must submit to the HIO, among other things, their education certificates for adults and children," the Organization states in its official briefing to doctors and hospitals.
At the same time, it notes that "doctors who are registered for the provision of health care services in cases of accidents and emergencies within the framework of the GHS, are invited to download the training certificate valid for their case through the Provider Portal of the GHS IT system by Monday, June 30, 2025".
As far as the professionals who participate in the patient screening team are concerned, "hospitals are invited to submit to the Organization by September 1, 2025 the training certificates of all health professionals who make up the screening team of each hospital, as well as the certificate from the Training Institution for the satisfaction of the training requirements set by the Organization".
Mandatory availability of specialist doctors
At the same time, as of June 1, 2025, "the provision of the relevant circular that provides for the obligation of doctors to be on call on a daily, 24-hour basis is implemented as follows:
> Daily mandatory on-call duty for doctors of all the following specialties (special pathology, cardiology (invasive), general surgery, orthopaedics and radiology.
> Daily mandatory on-call duty of doctors of at least one of the following: Neurology, Paediatrics, Intensive Care and Radiology (with the possibility of performing invasive radiology operations).
In fact, in order to ensure the availability of these doctors, the HIO informs the hospitals that "in order to document the medical on-call duties of the compulsory specialties, the hospitals are invited to submit to the Organization in the first week of each month the on-call schedule of the month".
Compensation on the basis of qualitative criteria and units
The plan, which will be implemented from Sunday, includes eight different qualitative criteria.
As stated in the relevant announcement: "The Organization intends to implement eight qualitative criteria, each of which receives a specific score depending on the degree of satisfaction of the conditions that have been established".
The qualitative criteria concern, among other things, the waiting times of patients, before and after their admission to the A&E and the degree of satisfaction of the patients who, after the issuance of their discharge, will receive a relevant questionnaire by e-mail.
In detail, the qualitative criteria concern:
> Evaluation of questionnaire results for A&E services by patients. This criterion will receive 15 points.
> Recording of the time from patient registration to screening process. The criterion will receive 10 credits with the time being set at 10 minutes.
> Recording of the time from sorting to management of the problem by the staff of the A&E. The criterion will receive 20 points on the basis of the severity category of the incident.
> Recording of the total time of the beneficiary's stay in the A&E with a number of units of 10.
> Recording of the time from the moment of the arrival of the ambulance to the collection of the patient by the staff of the A&E. Number of units up to 10.
> Recording of the percentage of patients who leave before or after screening without being served, number of units 5.
> Recording of the percentage of patients who visit A&E within 72 hours of their first visit, number of units 15.
> Certification of training of all members of the sorting team by a competent training body.
"On the basis of the qualitative criteria, the compensation per incident in the A&E will not be increased with an additional compensation of up to €20 per incident depending on the score that each Department will receive".
According to the HIO, "for the first four months of application of the qualitative criteria until it is possible to collect the necessary data for the calculation of the actual score of each AED, the additional compensation will be calculated based on the score of 80% for all AEDs".
After the end of the four months, "the evaluation will be carried out every six months in line with the evaluation of the qualitative criteria for inpatient care".
The evaluation of the A&E "will be done through data that are or will be made available in the IT system of the GHS, with the exception of data concerning the training of the members of the screening teams".
At the same time, the criteria regarding the waiting time until sorting and the waiting time from sorting to management, the necessary arrangements will work within the GHS software in the coming months.
The additional compensation of the A&E that will result from the evaluation on the basis of the qualitative criteria will be paid to the hospitals on a monthly basis.
