Greece lies at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, in south-eastern Europe, with many islands throughout the Aegean and Ionian seas. Its population of 11 million people has a life expectancy of 79 years for men and 84 years for women. The financial crisis in 2007 weakened the health system, and health inequalities increased. In response, Greece implemented the health reform support programme 2013–2015 in cooperation with WHO to shift focus from treatment to prevention. In 2016, the primary health care (PHC) roll-out plan was developed, starting implementation in 2017. In 2018, WHO opened an office in Athens, and Greece joined the UHC Partnership (UHC-P). During 2019, the UHC-P continues to support the PHC reform through various approaches such as strengthening policy dialogue at central and regional levels. Collaboration also addresses health financing whereby the UHC-P provides policy options for a continuous increase of public funding for PHC. Moreover, after reviewing the national strategy on human resources for health, UHC-P will provide technical assistance in implementation. You can access important country documents by clicking here.
Technical Areas
Completed/Cancelled
| Product/Service | Deliverables | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Continuing policy dialogue with stakeholders at central and regional levels on the PHC reform and generate support for a further roll-out. | "Short video on improved access to PHC services at community level, to be used during the policy dialogue events with stakeholders on the PHC reform.Regional workshop on Integrating Health and Social Care in Ioannina, 15-16 Oct-18.Policy dialogue involving the whole network of newly created local health units (TOMYs), 7-8 Dec-18 " | Completed |
| Providing policy options for a continuous and sustainable increase of public funding for PHC, including through the re-allocation of funds within the sector and their pooling at regional level, in line with available good practices in the region. | Policy Brief on ensuring financial sustainability of the PHC sector in short- and long-term | Completed |
| Developing new contractual arrangements for the PHC teams increasing their autonomy and moving from a salary-based payment towards a mixed system, taking into consideration the population served and its needs. | Policy brief on optimizing contracting arrangements for the PHC sector, including suggestions on pay-for-performance mechanisms and indicators | Completed |
| Supporting implementation of pay-for-performance mechanisms in PHC to reflect the individual and group efforts in the teams and to address priority risk factors for public health (with focus on major risk factors for NCDs), including key performance indicators. | Policy brief on optimizing contracting arrangements for the PHC sector, including suggestions on pay-for-performance mechanisms and indicators | Completed |
| Improving referral mechanisms and integration of services at community level by creating clear pathways. | Policy brief on improving the referral mechanisms at community level. Action plan for the integration of services in a pilot region. | Completed |
| Conducting patient experience/user satisfaction survey within the network of the community-based PHC services and providing policy recommendations for the adjustments and further improvement of the model. | Survey report with policy recommendations and updated guidance for managers of health care facilities on conducting user satisfaction surveys. Increased level of population satisfaction with community-based PHC services | Completed |
| Improving referral mechanisms within the PHC network and beyond by creating clear pathways | Policy brief with recommendations on referral mechanisms in PHC | Completed |
| Providing policy options for a continuous and sustainable increase in public funding for PHC and for improving contractual arrangements with PHC providers in order to increase performance and effectively address priority risk factors for public health | Policy brief with recommendations on improving PHC financing and contracting PHC providers. Suggested list of performance indicators for PHC. | Completed |
| Continuing policy dialogue with stakeholders on PHC reform and generating support for further roll-out and improving quality of services | Policy event, dedicated to 2 years anniversary of the TOMY network, with focus on financing/contracting of PHC services and referral mechanisms in PHC | Completed |
