Caretaker cabinet resolves urgent EFKA, NHS deadline issues

The cabinet chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas met earlier on Monday and discussed urgent issues of the ministries of Health and Labor & Social Affairs, ahead of the June 25 national elections.

One of the issues concerns the Unified Social Security Agency (EFKA), particularly the expiration of the terms of its board of managers on June 18. Sarmas said that among the available choices, the caretaker government decided to issue a Legal Content Act that will simply extend the board members’ terms for three more months.

Included in the same Act is a short-term resolution to the issue of some 250 doctors in the National Health System, who will reach retirement age by June 30. “Following an extensive review, it was decided that 92 of them are needed,” Sarmas said. Through the Act, their terms work will be extended for two months to the end of August, to prevent shortages as of July 1.

The third inclusion in the same Act, the PM noted, is for the purchase of an antivirus drug necessary for Covid-19 patients whose lives are in danger.

Sarmas also reiterated that the Greek Constitution underlines a caretaker government’s “strict political neutrality” policy. He also thanked the Turkish government for its collaboration with Greece to control human traffickers who take advantage of vulnerable individuals. The message to traffickers, he added, is that “Greece’s borders even at Evros are not open, and we are protecting them in the most effective way possible, relative to the attack they are under.”