Greek Health Minister Andreas Xanthos this week called for better monitoring and "counter-incentives" to reduce the extremely high incidence of caesarean sections in the country, as a percentage of births.
The percentage given for Greece is almost double to the European average.
Xanthos was responding to a tabled question by ruling SYRIZA MP Giorgos Dimaras, a query that came in the wake of recent figures showing that more than one in every two births in Greece was achieved via the C-section surgical procedure.
Figures by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that c-sections far out-number natural births in Greece, with the former reaching 56.8 percent of the total. WHO said the acceptable level is 15 percent, whereas the European average is 30 percent.
The figures are telling, given that in the past private maternity wards often declined to give specific figures for the procedure, citing "commercial privacy".
Xanthos, himself a physician, said the decades-old issue of overuse of c-sections is an embarrassment for the country's medical community, given that a high number of pregnant women are subjected to increased risks entailed with the specific surgical procedure.
Another long-standing component in Greece's "c-section equation" is the fact the the procedure costs more than a natural delivery, with both the medical practitioner and private maternity wards usually billing higher costs -- something that public sector health care funds and private insurance providers alike accepted over the years. In fact, figures in Greece point to increased costs by up 66 percent higher than natural births.
In a bid to finally control the explosive expansion of c-sections, the minister referred to the need for a new regulatory framework, as well as a campaign to better educate the general public. He also cited the prospect of the public health council, which functions under the ministry's jurisdiction, issuing directives and applying stricter medical guidelines and methodology for the procedure -- similar to what other developed countries employ.
Essentially, the target is for attending obstetricians and clinics to document the exact medical reasons that make a c-section necessary.
