Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family

Private doctors will be allowed to perform medical procedures in National Health System (ESY) hospitals, including surgeries, according to a Health Ministry amendment to a bill of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family. 

Greece's main helpline for women who are victims of violence is at risk of being suspended due to bureaucratic obstacles and underfunding, while its operators staged a five-hour stoppage on Wednesday over the issue.

With a motley concoction of small parties on the far-right of ruling conservatives New Democracy, the government is seeking to assess the reasons that led some 700,000 people to vote the way they did in the recent elections and the political response to lure them back to the center ground. 

The new Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family will work on "strengthening the family" and on the "harmonization that must exist between professional and family life," its first minister has said.

Sofia Zacharaki was speaking at the handover ceremony at the former Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which will be split in two to create the new ministry.