Angry residents on the island of Leros in the eastern Aegean Sea prepared an anything but warm welcome for the controversial Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis. Frustrated about the deterioration of the public health care system and the severe personnel shortages in hospitals, they called him a “clown”, “depraved” and a …
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Greece’s tourism industry to hire 3. countries nationals to fill staff shortages
Tourism businesses in Greece will be able to hire employees from third countries to meet staff demands after a relevant bill was revised to include the sector, the government announced last week. According to media, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt are the third countries to which Greece’s tourism can turn now to …
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Greece combats drugs shortages with price hikes!
Greece’s Health Ministry finally found a solution, a medicine, so to say, to combat drugs shortages: Price Hikes. In the mind of the ‘genius’ health ministry leadership this will scare off citizens/patients from getting medicines and thus creating shortages. Crazy? Cynical? Stay-home-and-die policy? The Health Ministry will raise the prices …
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Drugs shortage in Greece drives patients ‘crazy’ amid wave of seasonal viruses
The problem of drug shortages is growing each and every day in Greece amid a wave of viruses outbreak and the threats by the Health Minister to pharmaceutical warehouses and doctors do not seem to help at all. At a time when seasonal viruses such as the flu, the RSV …
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The Drag with Greece’s Drugs: Over 400 essential medicines unavailable
The Pharmaceutical Association of Attica complained that there is a serious shortage of drugs as more than 400 essential medicines are not available. Pharmacists and patients are racing to secure some drugs, the FSA said in a statement on Wednesday. According to the FSA, the shortages concern irreplaceable drugs such …
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Police against doctors demanding more protection against coronavirus
Police squads in anti-riot gear were sent to Evaggelismos hospital in Athens to disperse a gathering of doctors and nurses on the International World Health Day. The health workers struggling against the coronavirus in the biggest hospital in Greece, were demanding better protection against the virus and the hiring of …
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Greeks in coronavirus panic trigger shortages in face masks
With coronavirus infections rising in neighboring Italy, Greeks “raided” pharmacies on Monday morning and bought bulks of surgical face masks. “I’ve never seen something like that,” a pharmacists in our neighborhood in an Athens suburb told me. Customers do not buy just a couple but in bulk, ignoring the needs of …
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Seamen strike extended until Dec 11/2016, shortages on the islands
The Greek Seamen Federation (PNO) decided to extend its strike until 06:00 a.m. on Sunday, December 11th 2016. Minister for Maritime, Panagiotis Kouroublis, reassured the strikers that there will be no change in the taxation of the seamen neither in 2016, nor in 2017 and 2018 – however without success. …
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Prosecutor to investigate medicines shortages in Greece
The prosecutor in Athens will investigate the dramatic shortages in the Greek drug market after an official complained filed by the president of the Greek Pharmacists Association. Serious shortages in certain medications cause problems to thousands of insured and even uninsured patients. In preliminary investigation, the prosecutor will determine whether …
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German MPs “inspect” Athens biggest public hospital. To see the damages of German austerity?
Awa! Awesome news! Seven German parliamentarians “inspected” the Evangelismos Hospital, one of the biggest public hospitals of the Greece, to see for themselves the situation in the Public Health System and how it works, the Athens News Agency reported on Monday. Without mentioning names and political parties the interested “Seven” …
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Patras: Parents beat doctor for not prescribing “medical supplies” for disabled kid
Furious parents of a girl with chronic disability have reportedly beaten an IKA doctor in Patras because he refused to prescribe a special nutrition food for the bed-ridden child. The doctor was just following the guidelines of the Troika and the austerity Health ministers and the electronic prescription system that …
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Gripes about Greek civil services rose 26% in 2013
One should not wonder why citizens’ complains about Greece’s public administration have increased. Greeks were always dissatisfied with the public services where civil servants would come to and leave work whenever they wanted. But in recent years things got worse for another reason: shortage of staff. Troika has practically forbidden …
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Kefalonia declared “natural disaster zone”, 4,000 residents sleep in tents and cars
Τents, cars, buses and sports halls provided provisional shelter to thousands of Kefalonia residents who spent the bitter-cold, rainy and windy night outside their homes. Constant aftershocks and authorities warnings keep them away from the protection of a home that might be at risk of collapse. People with blankets and …
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Kozani: a ministerial pat to a pupil crying about lack of teachers (video)
What does a minister do,when a pupil bursts into tears in front of him, overwhelmed by the shortages in education? He gives a pat on the shoulder and most probably also wishes ‘good luck’. Or something like that. Because in Greece of Troika and lenders, there is not much a …
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Dying in the streets of Greece due to Troika cuts & shortages in health care sector
I really do not get it. Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis was eager to join the Troika-demanded trimming down of the country’s public sector through the enforced “mobility scheme”/”personnel transfer”/ kick in the as*”- scheme or call it however you want it.A total of 1,641 health-care employees are to be …
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Ilia: Lack of printer ink deprives Greeks from medicine
Residents of Tragano in Ilia, southern Peloponnese, were badly surprised to find out the Regional Medical Center was closed due to lack of printer ink. Locals in need of medicine were confronted with a closed door and a notice saying: “The center will be closed on Monday , June 3/2013 …
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Human rights report slams Greece over extreme-right violence and press freedom
A slap in the face of Greece is the annual report issued by independent organization Freedom House for the promotion of democracy and human rights. Greece received a downward trend due to “significant upsurge in right-wing violence, led by the Golden Dawn party, against immigrant groups, their supporters, and the …
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Greek patients in panic as drugs disappear from pharmacies
A friend called me in an incredible angry mood this morning. “Thugs! Thugs! Thugs!” she roared in my ear, “they’re all thugs! The health ministry, the pharma companies, everyone!” Reason for my friends outburst was that one epilepsy drug suddenly disappeared from the Greek market. Without a warning the production of …
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“The Health is Bleeding”: Protesting Doctors Cover Hospital Front with Blood
Trainee doctors in Attica state hospitals had an original idea to draw attention at the shortages and shortfalls in the Greek health care sector that is falling apart. During a protest on Tuesday morning, they doused artificial blood at the front of Evangelismos, the biggest state hospital in Athens. With …
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Greek Cancer Patients in Dire Need of Drugs as Health System Collapses
Cancer patients are in dire need of live-saving drugs as the health system in debt-ridden Greece collapses. Cancer-patients supporting NGOs, and pharmacists report of serious shortages of the expensive drugs against cancer due to a) public spending cuts b) reluctance of pharmacists to stock out of fear they won’t be paid …
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