Instead of beginning with hospitals, staffing plans, or new facilities, Greece is focusing on a different pressure point: how people first access the public health system.
On November 24, 2025, Greece announced a national healthcare initiative to improve access to care through artificial intelligence. According to the announcement, the project focuses on how citizens first contact and navigate the public health system. “This partnership will rebuild how care flows through our system, making it faster, clearer, and more centred on people,” Greece’s Minister of Health Adonis Georgiadis stated.
The partnership was announced in Athens by the Greek government and Sword Health, with participation from Sword Health founder and CEO Virgilio Bento and the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, Kimberly Guilfoyle. The initiative aims to establish one of Europe’s first AI-enabled national access systems, serving more than 10 million citizens.
Government officials cited Greece’s geographic complexity, particularly the challenge of providing consistent access across island, rural, and urban regions, as a key motivation behind the initiative.
Strengthening the first point of contact
The initiative is led by Sword Intelligence, the AI Care Management division of Sword Health, and has been developed over more than 4 years of platform deployment across millions of AI-supported care interactions within the company’s own operations. Greece represents the division’s first national-level implementation.
The project’s initial focus is Greece’s National Health Information Line, 1566, which serves as the primary access channel for citizens seeking guidance on appointments, referrals, and available services. During periods of heightened demand, such as flu seasons or extreme weather events, the line has faced operational strain.
Officials have stated that the objective is to reinforce the service’s capacity and resilience, not to replace existing staff or workflows. The AI-enabled upgrade to the 1566 line is targeted for rollout by mid-2026.
How the system is designed to function
Under the new model, AI tools support human professionals by managing routine interactions, assisting with triage, and coordinating demand during call surges. The system surfaces real-time operational signals, including call-volume spikes, recurring request types, and regional pressure indicators, while healthcare staff retain oversight and decision-making authority.
The broader design also includes digital care pathways and virtual health services, with an initial clinical focus on musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions. This phased approach allows the system to expand functionality while maintaining clinical and operational oversight.
In practical terms, citizens are expected to receive faster, more consistent guidance, while frontline staff can focus on cases requiring human judgment and clinical discretion.
Responding to regional challenges
Greece’s public healthcare system must operate across densely populated cities as well as smaller islands and rural communities, making coordination of access particularly complex.
By strengthening intelligence at the point of entry, the Ministry of Health aims to gain clearer visibility into where demand is building and how pressures are shifting nationally. Aggregated data, dashboards, and alerts are expected to support earlier coordination and more informed resource planning.
The initiative does not attempt to resolve every structural challenge in Greek healthcare. Its scope is narrower: improving how citizens are guided to available services when they first seek help.
Human oversight and independent evaluation
Both the government and Sword Health have emphasized that the system is designed to complement, not replace, healthcare professionals. AI manages scale and coordination, while responsibility for care decisions remains with human staff.
To support public trust, the rollout will be accompanied by independent monitoring and evaluation. National and international organizations will participate in assessing the system’s design and performance against international standards.
This framework reflects the complexity of introducing AI at a national scale and the importance of reliability in public healthcare services.
A closely watched national initiative
If the initiative performs as intended, Greece could serve as a reference point for other European countries facing similar challenges related to access, regional disparities, and system strain.
By focusing on how citizens first connect with the public health system, the strategy aims to improve access nationwide, making it more precise, consistent, and responsive.
Whether the approach delivers sustained improvements will become clearer as implementation progresses. What is already evident is that access is no longer treated as a secondary concern, but as a central component of Greece’s healthcare strategy.