The Greek government on Monday announced that spending by the relevant health ministry increased by 788 million euros in 2020, compared to 2019, or roughly 20 percent.
The finance ministry, in a bid to deflect growing opposition criticism that it has failed to boost capacity and personnel in the country’s public healthcare system in the period between the first and second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, said 786 million of the increased spending were targeted directly towards combating and preventing the public health emergency.
In citing the 2018-2019 period, when the previous leftist SYRIZA government was in power, the government said the health ministry’s spending in the former was 3.849 billion euros, rising to 4.041 billion in 2019.
Based on an introductory summary of the 2021 draft budget, regular expenditures – excluding emergency spending for the pandemic – are budgeted to rise only marginally, to 4,126 billion euros (compared to 4,043 billion euros in 2020).
The Mitsotakis government added that 131 million euros has been set aside for extraordinary remuneration of healthcare professionals hired this year due to the ongoing pandemic.
