ATHENS – After Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would move to improve Greece’s woeful public health system that has seen violence over waits at public hospitals, private doctors are going to be called into service in some areas.

Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis – who, in a previous New Democracy government imposed a 5-euro hospital admission fee – and wanted to make it 25 euros, said some private doctors would be sent to the island of Kos as well as Laconia in the southeastern Peloponnese, said Kathimerini.

That’s under a law named for former Health Minister Thanos Plevris which allows the government to force compulsory service by private physicians in emergencies although most had refused to do so voluntarily.

Speaking at the Pharma & Health Conference, Georgiadis said that 105 out of 140 private doctors contacted from remote Greek regions refused to assist and that only 14 said they might.

He ripped into them, saying that he “prefers voluntary cooperation” but his hand is being forced by their refusal. The Panhellenic Medical Association criticized the approach as a threat and said there’s not enough funding in the system.

Greece’s public health system and hospitals don’t have enough staff and haven’t recovered from a mass exodus during the 2010-18 economic and austerity crisis that saw thousands of doctors and health professionals flee to other countries.