Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-13

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greek programme absolutely credible, says EU spokesperson Breidthardt

[02] The targets and the foundations for the Greek economy have been set, says gov't spox

[03] 98,000 persons die every year from medical errors; no data on deaths in Greece

[04] Works at Macedonia airport postponed to Oct 2017

[01] Greek programme absolutely credible, says EU spokesperson Breidthardt

"We read very carefully the post of IMF officials" said Breidthardt adding that "the European institutions believe that the policies within the ESM programme are solid and can allow Greece to return to growth and to the markets". She also noted that "Greece has already implemented very important reforms and is on track to meet the agreed fiscal targets." She added that "all institutions will recognise these achievements".

Referring to the delegation in Athens, she noted that "staff from all institutions are currently in Athens to reach an agreement on the second review" and reiterated that "taking under consideration the up to date progress, an agreement is possible very soon if all parts participate constructively in the negotiations." Moreover, she underlined European Commission's commitment to this target.

Asked if the Economic And Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) could rule if the programme is credible in relation to the IMF doubts, Breidthardt said that the Greek programme has gone through "meticulous checkings by the Eurogroup and by other institutions as well as by the European Court of Auditors". As she stated, the ECOFIN is independent and lies to them to decide what they want to check and in general their order is related to the position on fiscal policies that refer to the eurozone in the whole.

[02] The targets and the foundations for the Greek economy have been set, says gov't spox

The government position is clear, he said. "It will not accept legislation of measures after 2018" he said and once again ruled out the possibility of early elections.

Tzanakopoulos noted that during the debate in parliament on the state budget made clear the distinction between the government and main opposition New Democracy (ND) positions.

"On one hand the government's plan to defend the social majority, the completion of the second review and the restoration of the collective negotiations for the workers benefit and on the other hand ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis' plan that seeks the interruption of the negotiations and the destabilisation in order to impose a harsh austerity programme that will charge it to the current government".

Tzanakopoulos stressed that Mr. Mitsotakis' plan will fail, "it will collapse as the success story that ND's staff tried to revive collapsed during the debate in parliament".

[03] 98,000 persons die every year from medical errors; no data on deaths in Greece

In Greece there is no official medical error log and therefore no data on deaths. "Medical errors in the specialties of surgery, paediatrics and pathology in our country is the result of several factors," the scientific head of the European research programme "Organisational Culture and Patient Safety", assistant professor of AUTH Medical School, Evharis Panagopoulos said to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

The results of the unit "Factors of preventing medical errors" of the programme "Organisational Culture and Patient Safety" concerning Greece showed that none of the participating hospitals had a formal medical error log.

A 47% -51% of respondents said that they made at least one mistake in the last month, while 4% -5% reported that errors were more than four. Also, in all three disciplines (surgery, paediatrics and pathology), the errors were mainly the result of poor or inadequate teamwork. It was found that women make fewer mistakes than men and more experienced doctors more errors than the inexperienced ones.

[04] Works at Macedonia airport postponed to Oct 2017

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