How long does a Greek need to wait for a public hospital appointment? Place your bets! I am sure you will not come up with the correct waiting time. OK, the most easy way is to make a phone appointment through the national public hospitals network: the quickest appointment you will get will be in 7 or 8 weeks. Can you wait so long? It depends…. Of course, in case of emergency you can go directly to hospitals on ’emergency duty’. You will have wait a couple of hours in air-sticky corridors, most probably standing, next to serious cases of disease and injuries.
But you have to have an emergency.
What do you do you have something that cannot wait for 8 weeks and it’s not an emergency?
You can go to the public hospitals in the afternoon and pay a fee of 50 euro.
If you can’t… you have to pick up the most tiring and exhausting way: Go to the hospital in the early morning hours – preferably before dawn…
A friend was telling me her adventure. She needed to go to a specialized public hospital in Athens.
She woke up at 5 o’clock in the morning and arrived at the hospital at 6:30. Already 200 people were standing line. The hospital opened its gates at 8 am and started to distribute the tiny papers with numbers. My friend was relieved to see the doctor ten minutes before 10 o’clock.
PS thank God, we’re still a member of the European Union 🙂
Its very hard to predict GMT – Greek Maybe Time..
LOL – no GNT anymore? (Greek Next Time)