Dear editor,

Professor Liaropoulos denies any association with the troika but omits to mention that he was directly appointed by the Greek government in 2011,(1) as chief consultant responsible for the articulation of a new policy of public hospitals’ mergers and downsizing,(2) a policy in line with the Troika’s bailout conditionalities,(3) and a policy that prof Liaropoulos now advocates in his paper, but without declaring his conflicts.(4)

Sincerely, yours

Elias Kondilis, Magda Gavana, Stathis Giannakopoulos, Alexis Benos

References

(1) Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity. Establishment of a working group on scientific proposal and support of collaborations of ESY's healthcare services. http://et.diavgeia.gov.gr/f/yyka/ada/4%CE%919%CE%A4%CE%98-%CE%9B%CE%91 (Accessed 10th December 2012)
(2) Ministry of Health and Social Solidarity, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Business plan for the restructuring of hospitals. http://platon.cc.uoa.gr/~reconweb/new2/index.php/2011-03-08-10-58-23 (Accessed 10th December 2012)
(3) Greek Ministry of Finance. Greece - Updated Memorandum of understanding on specific economic policy conditionality, August 6 2010. http://www.minfin.gr/content-api/f/binaryChannel/minfin/datastore/d8/4e/.... (Accessed 10th December 2012)
(4) Liaropoulos L. Greek economic crisis: not a tragedy for health. BMJ 2012; 345:e7988.

Competing interests: None declared