Adult personal doctors are demanding compensation for the vaccinations of their beneficiaries for pneumococcus but also for their promoted participation in the population control programs of the Ministry of Health, while requesting the termination of vaccinations for whooping cough, tetanus, herpes zoster and RSV in their clinics.
The three scientific societies that represent them have also submitted additional requests to the HIO which, as they claim, will help upgrade their role within the GHS, facilitate their patients and significantly improve the quality of the services they provide.
The doctors' request for vaccinations, of course, did not fall like a thunderbolt.
For at least a year now, both adult personal doctors and GHS paediatricians have been protesting, publicly stating that the procedures followed are complex and to a certain extent absurd, as a result of which they act, among other things, as a deterrent for them, thus affecting the promotion of vaccinations.
In the lengthy memorandum of a total of 9 points submitted to the HIO, the doctors state: "The way we secure vaccines in our clinics is problematic. We order from various companies, we pay for them and then we have to call the patients, to arrange appointments for their administration."
Many patients "change their minds" as a result of which vaccines are lost, destroyed and the cost is borne by doctors.
Recommended:
– "Flu vaccines that are seasonal, we secure without paying for them, in quantities in a limited period of time and we recommend that we continue to administer pneumococcal vaccines, but with the payment of a fee per vaccine.
– The rest of the vaccines for whooping cough, tetanus, herpes zoster, RSV are recommended as they are administered at the vaccination centers of the Ministry of Health."
Regarding the population control programs of the Ministry of Health, the doctors state:
– "It has been announced by the Ministry of Health that the population programs for colon and prostate cancer will soon be implemented, putting the focus again on the personal doctor."
Citing the legislation of the GHS and specific provisions concerning their compensation, the doctors emphasize that based on them: "for the implementation of population programs, the unit price must be agreed" for their remuneration.
It is reported that both vaccinations and population control programs fall more under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and not the HIO.
Less bureaucracy, more freedom of movement
Referrals:
– "The issuance of referrals gives the PDs the role of gatekeeper. But this is not the case, since a study carried out by some personal doctors has shown that 70% of the referrals issued concern "follow up" referrals. That is, visits that are already arranged in advance by the specialist doctors, or because the patient is already in the specialist doctor's office and calls for a referral."
Doctors suggest that these referrals "be excluded from the quality index but also from the obligation to issue a referral".
– "Chronic patients. Finally, there should be no need for referrals.
– Those patients who enter the registry as chronic Neurological/Rheumatological patients/Kidney patients, etc. A number of visits to a specialist doctor per year should be determined and there should be no need for a referral from a personal doctor.
– The short-term referrals issued by the PDs should be made for 3 visits and be valid for 12 months (as the recommendation of the HIO)".
Regarding the horizontal restrictions imposed by the HIO, the doctors, among other things, state in their note:
– While the personal doctor can and should investigate for osteoporosis, he is not entitled to prescribe drugs to patients who have been approved.
– We are not entitled to prescribe drugs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or for dementia/Alzheimer's disease to patients who have started treatment by a specialist doctor and we have to issue referrals every year.
– In suspected thyroid cancer, the personal doctor must be able to refer for thyroglobulin or for hyperparathyroidism investigation for parathyroid hormone or tumour markers in patients with indications or for natriuretic peptide in patients with heart failure.
– To be entitled to check Vitamin D in patients with osteoporosis. Doctors even suggest setting criteria.
– For faster diagnosis and better service to patients, we should be entitled to send for MRI scans of at least the brain, spine and abdomen
Other requests of adult personal doctors concern the quality criteria applied and related to their reimbursements, various complex regulations in the GHS software which, as they claim, increase bureaucracy, their replacements in cases of their absence and generally the improvement of their operation within the GHS.
