Health is now an inaccessible luxury?
One aspect of our lives that has been heavily influenced by the crisis is that of health. The charge for each visit to a public hospital has now been established as 5 euros. "For a pensioner who receives 350 euro a month it’s much too expensive and more often than not they have to make multiple visits," points out Nathalie Simonnot, Assistant Secretary General of the International Network of Doctors of the World. "Doctors ask patients to buy their own bandages, syringes and dressings because some hospitals no longer have them in stock," she adds.
More and more Greek citizens are affected
The poorest give up treatment or turn to organizations such as Medecins du Monde that, up until recently, mostly dealt with immigrants or asylum seekers. "The past year we received 20 000 people, and this year we have already reached 30 000. We’ve come to see a 30% increase in visits of the Greek population to our polyclinics," says Christine Samartzi, Coordinator of National Programs in Greece. Many pregnant women exhibit no progress, many children are sick or unvaccinated, many retirees no longer have income and many civil servants have experienced cuts in their salaries.
Beyond treatment, MDM are confronted with basic needs
The situation continues to get worse, as pointed out by a volunteer doctor at the clinic in Perama, south of Athens. “We now distribute products that are nutritionally rich to children: most vulnerable families are not able to get by and we have identified several cases of malnutrition". For the first time, MDM find themselves collaborating with super markets to collect essential products: pasta, rice, milk. MDM have even invited people to donate clothing to redistribute it to patients.
Immigrants are always the ones in the most precarious position
The situation is even more dramatic for immigrants, who are numerous in the country: Greece accepts the majority of those immigrants that enter Europe for the first time. More and more makeshift camps are appearing in the seaside town of Patras and the port, where immigrants sleep in ruins. Immigrants fleeing poverty and misery find themselves in an even worse situation, facing hardships and violence from the police, with no future in a country suffering from the crisis and often without any possibility of returning to their country. The van of MDM is their only access to treatment.
