Private hospital beds requisitioned to help public health system with coronavirus

The government has requisitioned two private clinics and their staff in Thessaloniki in order to ease the burden on the Greek National Health System (NHS) in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The health ministry said in a statement on Friday:

"During the first, as well as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the health ministry enlisted in its planning for managing the crisis the hospitals of the national health system, the military hospitals and the primary health system, as well as hospital beds and non-Covid ICUs in the private sector, with good cooperation.

In the prefecture of Thessaloniki and after the very heavy epidemiological burden that tests the limits of state hospitals, as well as staff, it was deemed necessary to have ordinary COVID-19 ward beds in private clinics. On the one hand, because the NHS hospitals must continue to be on call with safety for accident and emergency duty and, on the other hand, because the possibility of in-hospital spread of the coronavirus due to the rapidly increasing number of patients must be avoided.

A request was sent to the private hospitals and, despite the effort, it was not possible to find a mutually accepted solution. Following this, based on the plan prepared by the health ministry and within the framework of a relevant law passed by Parliament, as of 20/11/2020 based on Government Gazette 5148, two private clinics and their staff are requisitioned in the ongoing battle against the novel coronavirus and placed at the disposal of the 4th regional health region."