The news are overwhelming and we hardly find time to separately post about them. Unpaid doctors, corrupt doctors, angry pharmacists, seniors without pensions, insured queuing to get medicine refund. As the early elections near, hardly a public service seem to function properly, also because of the personnel shortage due to austerity programme. The ball of responsibility goes from one court to the next, nobody seems to take. Except the citizens, whose patience reach dangerous levels. A crazy house…
For a second consequent day, insurers at the Sailor’s Social security Fund NAT were squeezed in front of the fund’s cashiers and spent long hours at the stairs of the building trying to get refunds for prescription medicine they have paid form their own pockets. As the NAT has more than 6 million euro debts to pharmacies, pharmacists do not give medicine on credit. “I have been waiting for two months to get back my 200 euro” an angry pensioner told Skai TV reporter. After the squeezing became a major issue in several broadcasters, the NAT management decided to give out ‘priority numbers’…
Last evening I saw in Alpha TV about long queues of sick people waiting for up to six hours at the emergencies of some Athens hospitals. Exhausted patients, personnel on the verge of a nervous breakdown. A patient and a hospital cashier had a verbal dispute about the long queues and waiting hours, even to pay the admission fee of 5 euro (which by the way is illegal after a health ministry circular that apparently has not reached the hospitals management).
The hospital employee advised the patient to complain to the health ministry. After the patient gave an angry comment, the employee advised her to complain at the hospital manager… As it was ten mintues before midnight, I wondered whether the manager would be there to receive the complain.
At the same time, new cases of corruption see the daylight, even there are effort to be hidden in the …dark. In Iraklio, Crete, the two IKA doctors who had been trading 7,000 ‘sick leaves’ for a commission and Financial crimes units found at least two million euro in their bank accounts (incl bribes from pharmaceutical companies) instead of getting fired they got promoted! The director of the local IKA fund transferred them to new positions at the Disability Health Committee that aims to cross-check illegally obtain disability benefits. Although they should have been ‘released from their duties’. The new health system fund EPPOY asked the IKA director to resign. The doctors are still under investigation…
Talking about disability benefits. A director of Labour Organisation (OAED) in Zakynthos has been accused for having granted to himself and a relative of his ‘blindness allowance’. Zakynthos is the Ionian island with the highest rate in blind people. The majority of them apparently ‘fraudster’ who can perfectly see when it comes to cheat and exploite public money.
48,000 IKA pensioners did not receive their pensions this month, after a decision of the director of the Payment Department of Greek Post Office “on the grounds that 17,000-18,000 pensioners may have been registered twice.” The Post Office blamed the banks for this mistake. The pensioners went home without money, hoping to receive their pensions next Monday.
I often feels helpless about the non-functioning of the public services and there is no man or woman in charge to complain. Should I shout to the telephone operator for not getting a doctor’s appointment in time but only after 6 weeks? I shouldn’t, but sometimes I do. Those responsible are really out of touch. So I complain to the first civil servant I see in tangible closeness. Many citizens seek the morning programmes of several private television and radio stations to complain about misfunctioning in the public services or promote their requests. I did it once too 🙂
