Rise in user fees in Greece could reduce access to healthcare, charity warns
BMJ 2011; 342 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.d200 (Published 11 January 2011) Cite this as: BMJ 2011;342:d200
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Extreme shortages of employed medical doctors and nurses in Crete public hospitals force patients to visit local veterinarians in order to seek treatment.
References
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2016/06/10/crete-local-medical-associat...
https://translate.google.gr/translate?sl=el&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=el&ie=...
Competing interests: No competing interests
Ongoing economic recession, capital controls in Greek banks, precarious fund management, exorbitant expenditures in public hospitals, have lead to dangerous shortages of vaccines for paediatric use and antineoplastic agents in Greece.
Since hundreds of thousands of refugees pass through Greece every year in their way to other European Countries, lack of proper paediatric health care in the first point of entry in the Continent could risk their children as well.
Consequently, if later on refugee children develop diseases at schools of their host European Countries, resident kids could also get infected.
References
http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=746435
http://www.ekathimerini.com/202254/article/ekathimerini/news/childrens-v...
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34131863
http://en.protothema.gr/warning-drop-in-child-vaccinations-may-bring-bac...
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editors,
Major international journals have finally discovered and exposed the deplorable dangerous conditions of Greek public hospitals, healthcare humanitarian crisis that afflict the Greek population, the inability of Authorities to guarantee proper healthcare conditions, etc.
I started reporting these facts more than two years ago, here, and in other sections of the BMJ.
Nothing has changed since.
References
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/julie-tomlin/the-reality-behind-the-gr_b...
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/03/20/huffington-post-the-reality-b...
http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e7988?tab=responses
http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5239/rr/665219
http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d2408?tab=responses
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4803?tab=responses
http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2360/rr/647326
http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f2874/rr/645024
http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c5496/rr/609720
http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e5633/rr/609182
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d7326/rr/608272
http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e2935/rr/603727
http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e4607/rr/600855
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d7372/rr/592258
http://www.bmj.com/content/344/bmj.e3589/rr/587805
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editors,
Greek public hospitals close 200 more ICUs. [1]
Up to 40 accident or emergency patients are in waiting lists(!) to receive proper treatment, each day, in Athens alone. [2]
Such precarious conditions render public hospitals in Greece very dangerous.
Foreigners living in Greece and visiting tourists should seriously consider private healthcare insurance coverage for their safety.
References
[1] http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/09/12/greek-icus-close-200-beds/
[2] http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=532723
Competing interests: No competing interests
Dear Editors,
According to Dimitris Kontos, the President of Greek National Health Care system (EOPYY), 3,068,000 people have no access to public Health Care System, primary medical care or secondary hospital care.
A third of all inhabitants!
Greece is officially in a severe humanitarian crisis.
Reference
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2013/09/20/more-than-3-million-greeks-h...
Competing interests: Dr Stavros Saripanidis is a diligent taxpayer who has been financing the Greek NHS for years. He is outraged to see such extreme, dangerous, humiliating shortages, and diminished accessibility.
Dear Editors,
The Minister of Health himself posted some humiliating photos of public hospital buildings in Greece, on his twitter account, saying he was outraged.
References
https://twitter.com/AdonisGeorgiadi/status/362429782849368066/photo/1
https://twitter.com/AdonisGeorgiadi/status/362429865967878144/photo/1
https://twitter.com/AdonisGeorgiadi/status/362429955226869760/photo/1
Competing interests: Dr Stavros Saripanidis is a diligent taxpayer who has been financing the Greek NHS for years. He is outraged to see such extreme and humiliating shortages. Public managers in Greek public Hospitals must answer where all those billions of State funds went.
Dear Editors,
Donated Onasseio cardiac surgery hospital risked permanent closure. [1][2]
The Greek NHS is in such a bad shape it cannot even keep operational donated state of the art hospitals!
Poor Greek patients could have reduced access to vital services.
References
[1] http://newpost.gr/post/252463/onassis-cardiac-center-gets-7-million-euro...
[2] http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_11/07/2013_508905
Competing interests: Dr Stavros Saripanidis is a diligent taxpayer who has been financing the Greek NHS for years. He is outraged to see such extreme and humiliating shortages. Public managers in Greek public Hospitals must answer where all those billions of State funds went.
Dear Editors,
With Greek NHS (EOPYY) officially declared “out of control”[2], novel pharmaceuticals are not ordered or purchased over a period of two and a half years. [1]
Cancer patients in Greece are forced to receive inferior quality treatments.
References
[1] http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_15/07/2013_509474
[2] http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d200/rr/653459
Competing interests: Dr Stavros Saripanidis is a diligent taxpayer who has been financing the Greek NHS for years. He is outraged to see such extreme and humiliating shortages. Public managers in Greek public Hospitals must answer where all those billions of State funds went.
Dear Editors,
Public administration inspector general and new Minister of Health agree that Greek NHS (EOPYY) is exploited and overcharged by corruption, completely disorganized, producing huge new deficits every month, at risk of economic collapse, in need of drastic interventions. [1][2]
This doctor has been reporting these facts, in the BMJ, for more than two years.
References
[1] http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_10/07/2013_508576
[2] http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_10/07/2013_508653
[3] http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/11/03/no-time-or-money-reform-gre...
Competing interests: Dr Stavros Saripanidis is a diligent taxpayer who has been financing the Greek NHS for years. He is outraged to see such extreme and humiliating shortages, corruption and deficits. Public managers in Greek public Hospitals must answer where all those billions of State funds went.
Deadly Greek hospitals
This recent published on-site investigative article of The Guardian [1] confirms the dangerous precarious state of the Greek hospitals, I have been writing about in the BMJ for the last 6 years.
15 percent of all patients admitted to Greek public hospitals get superbug infections, with resulting fatalities to 18.8%–37.5% of that number. [2][3]
References
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/01/patients-dying-greece-publ...
[2] http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/53/2/177.long
[3] http://www.ekathimerini.com/213932/article/ekathimerini/news/doctors-uni...
Competing interests: No competing interests