The Greek Ministry of Health and WHO/Europe, through its Office on Quality of Care and Patient Safety in Athens, in collaboration with the Agency for Quality Assurance in Health (ODIPY) and the European Union’s (EU) Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support, worked together in the last 18 months to create a new National Strategy for Quality of Care and Patient Safety 2025–2030 that will underpin health-care transformation in the country.
This strategy aims to support creating a health system where quality is a daily commitment, ensuring that all citizens trust health care to be safe, respectful, equitable, and efficient.
Background
Greece has made considerable progress in reforming its health-care system through initiatives such as improving health-care professionals’ training, strengthening primary care, and integrating digital health technologies. Supported by Greece’s Recovery and Resilience Plan and the EU Cohesion Policy, these efforts are focused on modernizing infrastructure and creating a high-quality, equitable, efficient, and patient-centred system.
However, challenges remain, including issues with service organization and limited focus on patients and their families, as well as poor patient awareness regarding quality of care and safety. These issues contribute to disparities in health-care quality across distinct parts of the country and providers, underscoring the need for tailored policies and patient-centred initiatives. Additionally, Greece still lacks a comprehensive national strategy for quality care, including patient safety, resulting in unmet medical needs, suboptimal health outcomes, lack of trust, and inefficiencies.
This strategy presents a significant opportunity for Greece to address these gaps and enhance quality of care through a unified, strategic approach with a focus on patient-centredness, governance, accountability, and equity.
The new strategy
The National Strategy for Quality of Care and Patient Safety, developed through a co-creation exercise involving the Ministry of Health of Greece, including the 7 health regions, ODIPY, the WHO Office on Quality of Care and Patient Safety, and the EU Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support as part of the HQC-2-Greece project, provides a comprehensive framework for improving health-care outcomes, patient safety, and public trust.
Using a co-creation and mixed-methods approach – including literature reviews, analyses, surveys, and interviews – it identifies priorities in governance, patient safety, training, and health literacy. Insights from 405 stakeholders and 7 workshops across all 7 health regions in Greece with 348 participants shaped actionable recommendations, including relevant input from patients and patients’ organizations in Greece.
Through this inclusive, evidence-based approach, the strategy aligns national and regional priorities, establishing a clear path for improving the quality of care and patient safety in Greece.
The strategy is structured around 3 strategic pillars:
- leadership and governance: building a solid foundation for the health system through effective leadership, transparent governance, and the integration of evidence-based practices;
- evidence and innovation: emphasizing the importance of continuous innovation and the integration of evidence-based practices will lead to improving safety, effectiveness, and equity in health care; and
- behavioural insights, literacy, and engagement: patient empowerment through improved use of behavioural insights, health literacy and engagement in care decisions, as ensuring that patients are involved in their care leads to better outcomes and strengthens the patient-provider relationship.
Event details
On 31 January, distinguished attendees, including the Minister of Health, the Deputy Minister of Health of Greece, and the Secretary General for Health Services of Greece, representatives from WHO/Europe, ODIPY and other key institutions, including the health regions and the European Commission (Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support), will convene for a half-day meeting at the Eugenides Foundation to launch the strategy.
Comprehensive coverage by local media outlets is anticipated.