KETHEA: The bill of the Ministry of Health was withdrawn

After strong reactions and mobilisations, the draft of the bill of the administration of the Ministry of Health, which provided for the radical restructuring of the KETHEA. After a meeting of the Board of the Employees' Association with the Deputy Minister of Health, Mrs. Zoe Rapti, it was decided to ask the Employees' Association to submit to the Ministry, with a horizon of about two months, its own proposals for the operation of the KETHEA.

«The Draft Administration is now a thing of the past. It was rejected by the employees of the KETHEA, but mainly from the society. It no longer exists as a draft law but has been downgraded to an internal text, the subject of elaboration only for the committee that drafted it,» the workers note in their statement.

The entire announcement of the Association of Employees of the KETHEAIN:

«The draft bureaucratic mutation and substantial dismantling of the KETHEA, which was submitted by a committee appointed by the government-appointed Board of Directors of the KETHEA, caused a reaction of such magnitude that the Initiators but - we confess - neither do we ourselves. Those who have been members of the Healing Communities, their families, those who have served as volunteers or members of previous administrations, collectives, parties and municipalities have supported our efforts.

Most importantly, however, are the thousands of citizens who took this case into their own hands, overcoming our own boot, with the simple phrase «Support to KETHEA». We would like to thank them all one by one and one by one. They are the hands of the entire society who were embraced to protect the country's largest rehab facility

The Draft Administration is now a thing of the past. It was rejected by the employees of the KETHEA, but more importantly by the community. It no longer exists as a draft law but has been downgraded to an internal document, processing object only for the committee that drafted it.

On Good Tuesday, April 27, representatives of the Board of the Employees' Association met with the Deputy Minister of Health, Mrs Zoe Rapti. At this meeting, it was explained in a well-founded way to the political leadership why the Draft cannot be the based on of any dialogue. As a conclusion, in consultation with the Minister of Health, the Employees' Association was asked to submit to the Ministry, with a horizon of about two months, its own proposals for the operation of the KETHEA.

Our Association accepts this responsibility. All the next period will be for us a Opportunity a meaningful and democratic dialogue, without exclusions and closed doors, in order to formulate our own proposals, with our eyes turned towards the future and towards Greek society.

From the very beginning, the Employees' Association has moved away from guild logic, in the spirit that the KETHEA does not belong either to its appointed Management or to us who work there. It belongs to all those who have access to its services, to the whole of Greek society, which has been tested many times over. This is what the KETHEA needs and this is what can keep it alive!

Whether the latest developments will provide a constructive basis for a dialogue for the support of the KETHEA or an attempt to calm the reactions, will be demonstrated in practice in the next period. We take it for granted that the results of any dialogue conducted in the coming months will be subject to the final judgment of the General Assembly of the KETHEA. The body which has tried to completely discredit the Draft, even though the Minister of Health himself had pledged that it would be strengthened in the context of self-governance.».