In a sudden move, the health minister Adonis Georgiadis has announced that it is shutting down a number of wards in three major psychiatric hospitals in Greece and that patients will be moved to smaller, out-patient clinics designed for short-stay cases.
In addition, medical and other staff have been told they face being placed on the government’s so-called mobility scheme, under which they must find another job in the public service within eight months or be fired.
The move will affectively Dromokaiteio psychiatric hospitals in Haidari and Attica psychiatric hospital in Dafni – both in Athens – and Thessaloniki’s psychiatric hospital in Stavroupoli.
Staff at Dafni hospital- which has more than 1,000 patients and 1,500 staff – have been told that three wards will close and that one in ten staff will be placed in the mobility scheme.
The decision to dismiss staff from their positions at the three hospitals was made in recent days in order to meet targets for public-sector dismissals set by the troika.
Upon being informed of the decision, staff at Dafni hospital started a protest on the street outside. Moreover, the director of the institution, Othon Charalampakis, has resigned in protest at the total lack of consultation with him over the move.
The list of staff to be suspended from their positions will be prepared over the coming weeks. It is understood that a tenth of the personnel in each institution will be placed on mobility, that is 150 staff members from Dafni psychiatric hospital and 83 from Thessaloniki psychiatric hospital.
Staff numbers at the Dromokaiteio, which operates on the basis of a bequest, were not immediately available.
Once the lists are ready, patients from the closed wards will be taken to short-stay clinics like those at Sotiria and Seismanogleio hospitals.
Source: enetenglish
