Greece’s Ministry of Health has put forth a proposal to reform the country’s mental health system, which will be debated and voted on in Greek Parliament this week.
The country’s mental health system has been widely criticized as inefficient and insufficient, which Greece’s Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis is hoping to rectify with the bill.
However, the bill has caused controversy and is yet another reason why the Minister is butting heads with Greece largest public hospital workers’ union, the Panhellenic Medical Association.
In protest of the mental health system reforms, the union held a work stoppage across Greece today for 24 hours and gathered in front of the Parliament in downtown Athens.
According to the union, the bill will just serve to further dismantle the already crippled public mental health care system by abolishing and centralizing existing local units, which will lead to the privatization of services and to non-profit organizations undertaking some service in an ineffective way.
It also notes that the failings of the mental health system in Greece are due to “the abondonment of psychiatric reform and the underfunding and understaffing of mental health units.”
According to the union’s announcement, the bill will be put to a vote today, Monday July 29, and has not taken into consideration any of the union’s counterproposals.
