Sju år har gått sedan den ekonomiska krisens utbrott i Grekland. Sju år som har lett nästan 2/3 delar av landets befolkning nära eller under fattigdomsgränsen. Sju år av åtstramningspaket som bland annat har skurit ner finansiering av sjukvården till hälften.
I denna kris finns det inte någon hårdare drabbad än de sjuka som har begränsad tillgång till sjukvård och inte råd att betala för sin behandling. Det är de som hotas, ofta till livet, för att den underfinansierade offentliga sjukvården inte har möjlighet att stötta dem.
Det är de personerna som solidaritetsläkarmottagningar i Grekland bildades för och det är för deras skull de finns kvar.
En av de första sådana mottagningar är baserad i Elliniko i Aten och Christos Sideris som är volontär där beskriver situationen i Grekland:

”The Inequalities in the Greek Health Care during the Crisis

The inequalities in the Greek health care system during the 7 year austerity have been great.  We will summarize in this article the austerity policies that were introduced in Greece over the last years. Health care was far from perfect before the crisis started in 2008. But whatever the many faults of the system, one way or another, the general public had access to the public health care system.

From the beginning of the crisis up to August of 2013, no government bothered much about the uninsured – who according to the president of EOPYY (Public Health Care Providers) reached more than 3 million in September of 2013. These people, most long term unemployed, were virtually cut off from pubic health care for having been without a job for more than two years, a limit set by OAED (the unemployment bureau). Those who had a serious illness were doomed to an early death – unless they could lay their hands on the necessary money. The rest put their families in debt as owing money to state hospitals was added to tax debt.

So what changed in August of 2013? For the first time since 2011, after the government had been under a tremendous pressure from the volunteer social solidarity clinics, the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis came up with the health voucher system. It stated that 100,000 of the long term unemployed would be eligible for health care. But this was just a drop in the ocean. Many of the 3 million people were in need of more than primary care. On top of that, they needed medicine, diagnostic tests and often very expensive therapies.

For the first time in January of 2014 the government decided to grant the uninsured partial access to the Greek Public Health System. This came about after the furor that broke out when a patient of ours died. He had been on a list of ten patients whose life was at risk which had been delivered to the Ministry of Health in December of 2013. Unfortunately the Ministry had not even responded, in spite of vigorous public campaign from our clinic. On the day of the patient’s, death, the Ministry finally decided to react. From that day on, and for the first time since the crisis began, there started a public debate on the health problems of the uninsured that still continues. The Ministry finally admitted that there was a problem and the Minister of Health at the time, Mr. Georgiadis, proclaimed that, apart from the changes in primary health care, all uninsured patients would have access to the newly formed PEDY (Public Primary Health Care System). What the minister did not mention was that in just a month’s time, he forced 3,000 doctors out EOPYY after giving them the choice of keeping their private practice or working for PEDY, but not both. So PEDY had half the doctors to face providing primary health care for a vastly larger number of people. Very soon many of the public clinics had to close because they were understaffed and lacked physicians of various specialties.

In the summer of 2014, the government went a step further and granted secondary (hospitalization) health care to uninsured patients who needed it. Unfortunately, a patient had to pass inspection by a three person committee. A year later these committees have not even been selected for most of the public hospitals. Patients were waiting, as usual, and trying to cope with their illnesses in vain.

At the same time, the previous government took another step forward. Both insured and uninsured were allowed access prescription medicines bought with a contribution from the state. For the first time insured and uninsured could get medicines with the same co-pay level. But the co-pays were increased. The amount contributed by the patient surpasses more than 25% of the cost of the medicine. The average co-pay amount is 35-40% and in some extreme cases, can reach 75%. As a result, not only could the uninsured not afford medicines, but many of the insured couldn’t either. Finally, the previous government did nothing to allow the uninsured to have access to diagnostic tests.

These years of austerity have seen an increasing exclusion of the public from the Greek public health system. There have been unbelievable situations which have led to deaths because patients couldn’t afford the necessary care or necessary medication. The examples are numberless. Insured cancer patients having their treatments (booked way in advance) cancelled because the hospital no longer had the necessary funds to provide treatment. No alternative treatment center was suggested. Uninsured cancer patients, completely cut off from treatment, looking for alternative sources of treatment – sometimes for more than 6 months before they found help from a social/community clinic. An uninsured cardiac patient was literally ejected from surgery at Greek public hospital for not having 18,000 Euros to pay. In 2012, more than one maternity clinic kept new-borns from their mothers until they could pay delivery costs. All these cases were reported by the foreign press who got their facts from the voluntary community clinics that have been trying, all these years, to stop this uncivilized treatment.

Today we are not much better off than we were with the previous government. A new law was passed by the present government that gives full access to the primary and secondary health care system to all the uninsured people (Greek and foreign that live “legally” in this country).  But all “illegal” immigrants are cut off and at the same time people continue to find it very difficult to pay their contribution towards the cost of the medicines, which can reach up to 75% of the cost on some certain medicines.  Insured and uninsured patients are finding it increasingly difficult to foot the bill.  People officially recognized as being poor by the state must now also pay out of their pockets their share for non-serious medical treatment medicines, when in fact only a couple of years back they could get their medicines completely for free from public hospitals.  An increasing number of public hospitals is cutting back on surgeries and other essential treatments because of the lack of money.  The result being long waiting times for patients needing essential surgery or cancer treatment.

The direction is clear; the Greek public is increasingly excluded from the Public Health System. This is particularly dangerous in a country with close to 2/3rds of the population living just above or below the poverty level. The biggest problem is the sheer lack of money in the Greek public health system. It renders useless any legal or ministerial efforts. Funding for the public health system has been reduced by more than 50% since 2009. Without this being addressed, nothing significant will change.

Christos Sideris
communications team of the Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko
http://www.mkiellinikou.org

8/7/2017”

Nätverket för Grekland (NFG) har de senaste 3 åren valt att stötta solidaritetsläkarmottagningen i Elliniko med mediciner, vacciner och annat material till ett värde av 106 000 SEK.
Medan krisen i Grekland pågår och det grekiska folket fortsätter att lida betraktar vi det som vår skyldighet att inte vända dem ryggen…
Mitt i september planeras nästa inköp av mediciner åt mottagningen i Elliniko varför pågår NFGs insamlingskampanj (plusgiro: 71 82 29 – 8, Swish: 0762605478, skriv som meddelande “NFG-Insamling”).  Även 1 krona är välkommen och kan göra skillnaden för ett litet barn med diabetes som behöver få sitt insulin eller en kvinna med bröstcancer som behöver få sina mediciner men inte har råd med dem.

“Alla kan inte göra stora saker. Men alla kan göra små saker med stor kärlek.” Moder Theresa

Nikos Pournaras
Vice Ordförande
Nätverket för Grekland