The Minister of Health Makis Voridis has withdrawn his earlier decision to allow nurse to prescribe medicine and medical supplies – only a few days before the general elections, after fierce reactions in the healthcare sector, including from nurses themselves.
Prior to his decision to repeal the controversial ministerial decree, Mr. Voridis was contacted by the president of the nationwide medical association (PIS) Michalis Vlastarakos who stressed that the Greek people’s healthcare was at risk. Additionally, the vice president of the nationwide pharmaceutical association (PFS) Yannis Dagres spoke harshly and critically of the Health Minister and dubbed his controversial decree a “cheap election campaign favor”.
Even nurses react negatively to Minister’s initiative
Representatives of the nationwide nursing staff federation PASONOP denounced the Ministry’s “unprecedented initiative”, which they claim was taken without any consultation. The federation accused the Ministry of “monumental populism” and stresses that the decision is problematic.
Furthermore, nurse representative notes that according to the ministerial decree a series of medical actions may be implemented according to nursing protocols. However, in Greece there are no official standardized nursing protocols, meaning that the decree may – in practice – not be implemented.
The federation of clinical experts also issued a statement questioning and demanding withdrawal of the ministerial decision. In its statement the federation points out that “non doctors” are now allowed to prescribed medication, when at the same time clinical and laboratory doctors are banned from prescribing medication that is outside of their specialization (such as cardiologists prescribing antidiarrheal medicine).
