Although no previous strikes have done anything to deter the government from austerity measures that include deep health care cuts, doctors, employees in the public health system and freelance doctors called a 24-hour strike for June 7, outside the Health Ministry in Athens, Greece.
Representatives of the doctors said that the National Health System (ESY) and the National Organization for Health Care Provision (EOPYY) are close to collapse.
They pointed out that there are 1.5 million of unemployed and uninsured who do not have access to the healthcare system, consisting in that way a healthcare bomb with unpredicted consequences for public health.
The population’s vaccination coverage is dramatically decreased, creating the danger of epidemics development in Greece in the near future, which will be very difficult to be dealt, as Dimitris Varnavas, President of the Federation of Greek Hospital Doctors (OENGE) said. He pointed out that the population’s health is deteriorating, sounding the alarm for measures to be taken, so that “we will not be disorderly led to a humanitarian crisis.”
OENGE said that with big health care cutbacks, including vaccinations, during a crushing economic crisis, there is a likelihood that many Greeks could fall victim to to infections, epidemics and other contagious diseases. Varnavas warned that Greece could face epidemics that will be difficult to defeat.
The president of the Federation of Non-medical Staff, supported the prediction and noted that more Greeks have no health insurance and that unemployment ranks are growing, putting more people into jeopardy.
The Greek Health System counts 6,500 doctors’ vacant posts, as many doctors are fleeing to seek for a better future abroad. The non-medical staff has fallen from 80,000 to 65,000 in support. Hospital beds have fallen to only 35,000 while in EOPYY (the National Organization for the Provision of Health Services), 5,000 polyclinics doctors treat 10 million insured.
The shortage of doctors reach at 6,500 and of nursing staff at 20,000, as another doctors’ representative mentioned. There is shortage of personnel in Evangelismos Hospital as well, Greece’s biggest hospital, where there are 500,000 outpatients and 52,000 inpatients per year.
There is a total of more than 1,400 vacant jobs of all specializations and all the hospital’s special units are staffed with a number of doctors and nursing staff, which is far below the international safety levels.
Concerning the polyclinics of the largest Social Security Organization in Greece IKA, the situation is characterized as nightmarish, as 5,000 doctors struggle to treat 10,000,000 people.
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