Helliniko
24 April 2013
PRESS
RELEASE
A
Distinguished Group of British Lawmakers and Union Representatives visit MCCH
On 23 April 2013 MCCH was visited by representatives
of the Greece Solidarity Campaign. The
visitors included, journalists, British MP Andrew Love and Pilgrim Tucker,
representative of the powerful Unite Union which represents the larger trade
unions in the UK
(public workers, nurses, firelighters etc.), representing more than four
million workers. The group was led by
Isidoros Diakidis, member of the Haringey Council of London .
The visit was to explore Greece ’s volunteer community
clinics, understand how they have organized themselves, operate, and how they
obtain the supplies and medications necessary for their operation. They also wanted to see if these clinics are
able to provide more advanced care for the uninsured, unemployed and those
without resources – the patients of the volunteer community clinics.
Our visitors were frankly shocked to learn about the
lack of health care for the unemployed and uninsured - especially the lack of
coverage for expectant mothers, surgery etc. in the public hospitals. In the UK all are covered by the National
Health Service. They also were impressed
by the rapid increase of patient visits to MCCH in the last four months.
Our visitors informed us that they came to Athens with the aim to
see for themselves how the Greek Public Health Service has gone wrong. And of course, they want to contribute and
assist the volunteer clinics under their campaign “Medical Aid Greece ”.
We deeply thank our visitors for their interest and
their expressions of solidarity. And
even more, we thank them for taking back to the UK
the story of the plight of the public health system in Greece .