Hospital doctors agree to afternoon pay as civil servants

State health services organisation (OKYPY) is close to an agreement with doctors’ unions over the afternoon operation of hospitals, settling a row that erupted about overtime pay.

Doctors’ unions and OKYPY have come to a preliminary agreement over how doctors will be paid for the services offered outside of their normal working hours.

OKYPY has accepted that doctors will be working in shifts voluntarily according to a schedule prepared for outpatient departments and surgeries.

Afternoon shifts will be considered overtime, satisfying the demand of unions.

Doctors had pushed back at a proposal to see them take afternoon shifts without extra compensation.

They argued that despite being seconded to OKYPY, now running state hospitals, they remain civil servants, and therefore the public service law determines their working conditions.

Regarding doctors’ compensations during their overtime work, sources quoted by Phileleftheros daily said they get a percentage of compensations paid by the Health Insurance Organisation to OKYPY for procedures conducted out of hours.

For the operation of the outpatient clinics, doctors will receive a fixed amount per day.

Overtime will cover the hours from 3 pm to 7 pm.

Overtime will be voluntarily and concern the specialities for which there is a need to extend hours to serve patients.

OKYPY now has to sit down with nurses’ unions following the agreement with doctors.

OKYPY is set to propose a similar compensation method as offered to doctors, with nurses being compensated with a percentage of the compensation paid out by the HIO for procedures out of working hours.

Nurses’ unions are reportedly insisting on sticking to the overtime compensation scheme which was in place before state hospitals were handed to OKYPY.

There are about 7,000 employees in state hospitals.