Editorial: Rationalism

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ interview regarding regional hospitals was yet another opportunity for the opposition to resort to populism.

The opposition essentially spoke of disaster and tried to capitalise on an announcement that was not ungrounded and did not endanger public health care or the health of citizens.

If the pandemic has taught us one thing it is that health policy must be modernised and updated based on collective, new needs and that one must create vertical structures that will have an immediate and substantial impact on the management of new challenges.

On the contrary, a better and more rational health policy, the merging of institutions, and a more effective distribution of hospitals by region are all urgent matters given current public health conditions.

By retaining the burdensome institutional structures that were designed based on the challenges of previous decades one simply further hikes the aggregate cost and places public health in danger.

Today, however, the great challenge is to treat a large percentage of cases at the level of primary healthcare and a smaller percentage in large hospitals.

That way, and with a better distribution of medical specialties, our hospital facilities will gain value and prestige in the even that one confronts emergency conditions once again.

It is best not to address such critical issues with populism.