German Medical Corporation Wants to Acquire Greek Clinics

The German Medical Corporation “Asklepios” (“Asklepios Kliniken Hamburg GmbH”) appears set on buying Greek private  and state medical facilities, under the approval of the Greek Health Ministry. The first “targets” seem to be private clinics, while several state hospitals that have been fully neglected are among the next planned acquisitions.

The first two “victims” are reportedly the hospitals Sotiria, located in a 400 acre pine forest at the Mesogeion Avenue, and KAT, which owns 67 acres near Kifisia Avenue.

German Corporation Asklepios Kliniken GmbH has already made the necessary arrangement to buy the Errikos Dinan private clinic.

It appears that Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center will also be redeemed by the German corporation. The environment is already tense at the clinic, where employees have been on strike since yesterday and will be until Friday. Layoffs of 300 administrative employees and 35 doctors, and an additional 45% salary cut on every employee was announced by the Board of Managers of the clinic, causing great distress.

The German Asklepios has expressed its interest for the Errikos Dinan clinic since 2010, an offer that was well received by its Board of Managers

The clinic could not be initially purchased by a private firm, as it was registered as a public welfare institution. A law amendment brought by Health Minister Loberdos in the Greek Parliament last February, enables the sublease or even sale of the clinic. Onassis Clinic is protected by its nature as a nonprofit public welfare institution, but reliable sources report that purchase arrangements have already begun. The administration denies possible layoffs and does not give information on the reported sale, as reports newspaper Demokratia.

More than 800 employees of Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center are literally in state of panic, ever since Minister Loberdos announced to the clinic’s managers that the state budget can no longer fund its needs and pay its 10 million euro debt.