Two general practitioners at Leros Hospital issued a press release disputing claims made by the doctors' union about staffing in the Accident and Emergency Department.
Understaffing is not absence, and lawful leave is not abandonment
The statement responded to a union press release saying there was no general practitioner in the emergency department and that rural service doctors were being asked to operate it without a specialist general practitioner present.
The authors said the actual staffing position needed to be set out accurately.
Specialist general practitioner Sevasti Chatzidaki was still serving in the emergency department, where she had been assigned by a management decision. She performed her duties normally and was absent only on the lawful rest days to which she was entitled.
Specialist general practitioner Evangelos Markakis served at the Health Centre, with primary healthcare as his main responsibility. He also participated in on-call cover and made a substantial contribution to the emergency department.
The claim that there was no general practitioner in the department therefore did not reflect the actual staffing position, they said. One general practitioner was administratively assigned to it, and a second supported its on-call service while primarily working at the Health Centre.
The need for further staffing was beyond dispute and was a shared demand. But understaffing was not the same as saying there was no general practitioner, and a doctor's lawful rest day could not be presented as a vacancy created by that doctor.
Emergency care is cross-departmental
Operation of the emergency department was not the exclusive responsibility of general practitioners and could not be transferred to rural service doctors, the statement said.
All relevant specialties were required to help manage emergencies and assume the responsibility appropriate to their field and to the nature and severity of each case.
Rural service doctors needed protection. That required adequate staffing, a clear division of responsibilities and genuine cross-departmental working, rather than shifting responsibility or creating false impressions about specialist colleagues.
Union representation should protect doctors
A trade union body should highlight shortages, but it should also protect all the doctors it represented and verify information before making public statements, the doctors said.
Institutional representation should remain focused on actual service data, evidence, unity and equal protection for all colleagues.
Their demands
- Withdrawal of claims in the union press release that did not reflect the actual staffing of the emergency department, together with a public correction.
- Full and adequate staffing of the emergency department with specialist doctors.
- Genuine implementation of its cross-departmental character, with every relevant specialty contributing and accepting its proper share of responsibility.
- Protection of rural service doctors from responsibilities that did not belong to them.
- Respect for the lawful rights and rest days of serving doctors.
- Responsible, evidence-based and unifying union representation.
The doctors said they were not asking for understaffing to be concealed. They wanted it described accurately, using the facts that applied at the relevant time, without turning it into personal blame or targeting doctors serving the hospital.
Understaffing was not absence, lawful leave was not abandonment and the emergency department was cross-departmental, they concluded. Public claims that did not reflect the actual staffing position should be withdrawn and the truth restored.
The statement was signed by Sevasti Chatzidaki, specialist in general and family medicine in the Accident and Emergency Department, and Evangelos Markakis, specialist in general and family medicine at the Health Centre.
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