No time or money to reform Greek healthcare system: only solution to scrap and rebuild it from zero.
Dear Editor,
We read: tragedy, shortages of medical supplies, bribes, long waiting
times, understaffing, suicides rose by 40%, new HIV infections rose by
52%, patient deliberate HIV self-infection to obtain access to State
benefits or faster admission onto drug substitution programmes, tens of
thousands of Greeks seeking medical attention from NGO street clinics[1],
600 Greek medical doctors serving as volunteers in Africa return to help
patients in their crisis-hit Country, NGO food containers programmed to be
sent to Africa to be distributed in Greece[3], primary school pupils
fainting in class from starvation[4], State money lasting only for another
15 days [10] [11] [12] [13], waiting for European Community/International
Monetary Fund/European Central Bank combined rescue loan to survive,
technical default to last for weeks[5], in the study The Lancet
published[1] [2], and other news agency reports.
On the other hand, Greek public hospitals continue to produce every
year debt exceeding their total market value [6] and Greece continues to
be by far the first European Country in pharmaceutical expenditure per
capita [7] [8] [9]!
It is clear that the situation has reached breaking-point.
There is no time or money to plan long-term healthcare reforms.
Immediate action must be taken.
Since the existing healthcare system has been proven inefficient,
corrupted and extremely expensive, Ministry officials should scrap it and
build a new one, from zero.
Rapid Response:
No time or money to reform Greek healthcare system: only solution to scrap and rebuild it from zero.
Dear Editor,
We read: tragedy, shortages of medical supplies, bribes, long waiting
times, understaffing, suicides rose by 40%, new HIV infections rose by
52%, patient deliberate HIV self-infection to obtain access to State
benefits or faster admission onto drug substitution programmes, tens of
thousands of Greeks seeking medical attention from NGO street clinics[1],
600 Greek medical doctors serving as volunteers in Africa return to help
patients in their crisis-hit Country, NGO food containers programmed to be
sent to Africa to be distributed in Greece[3], primary school pupils
fainting in class from starvation[4], State money lasting only for another
15 days [10] [11] [12] [13], waiting for European Community/International
Monetary Fund/European Central Bank combined rescue loan to survive,
technical default to last for weeks[5], in the study The Lancet
published[1] [2], and other news agency reports.
On the other hand, Greek public hospitals continue to produce every
year debt exceeding their total market value [6] and Greece continues to
be by far the first European Country in pharmaceutical expenditure per
capita [7] [8] [9]!
It is clear that the situation has reached breaking-point.
There is no time or money to plan long-term healthcare reforms.
Immediate action must be taken.
Since the existing healthcare system has been proven inefficient,
corrupted and extremely expensive, Ministry officials should scrap it and
build a new one, from zero.
References
[1] doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61556-0
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61556-
0/fulltext
[2] doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(11)61152-5
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(11)61152-
5/fulltext
[3]
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_26/10/2011_412073
[4] http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/10/13/greek-crisis-out-of-
control-primary-school-pupils-faint-from-starvation/
[5]
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite2_1_28/10/2011_412281
[6] Stavros Saripanidis' Rapid Response in:
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4870.extract/reply#bmj_el_268394
[7] Stavros Saripanidis' Rapid Response in:
http://www.bmj.com/content/343/bmj.d4803.extract/reply#bmj_el_270274
[8] http://www.onmedica.com/newsArticle.aspx?id=098f821c-94bb-4acf-
ac08-e663361e74ed
[9] http://www.cmaj.ca/content/183/9/E523.full.pdf
[10] http://www.newser.com/article/d9q5k3ko0/finance-minister-says-
greece-can-last-until-mid-november-without-next-batch-of-bailout-
loans.html
[11] http://marginalevolution.com/blog/archives/1511/
[12] http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1004/greece-business.html
[13] http://tv.ibtimes.com/djia-stocks-up-following-comments-by-
bernanke-greece-to-run-out-of-money-by-mid-november-christie-sa/2101.html
Competing interests: No competing interests