Health needs care

The tension between the health minister and the Panhellenic Medical Association is an acute symptom of a chronic ailment - the lack of organization in the public health system and the absence of necessary coordination with the private sector. And so, the National Health System (ESY) finds itself without the necessary medical personnel, without having a way to call on private doctors for help. The fact that the minister thinks that he can deal with the problem more easily by turning it into a clash with doctors brings to mind the old saying, "to a hammer, all problems look like nails." This does not help solve this problem. But it does highlight the impasse which should have been avoided. 

Regional hospitals lacking essential medical personnel are the unavoidable product of years of institutional inertia, the lack of incentives and the absence of supervision that would have...