Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko
With the cooperation and support of the municipality of Helliniko-Argyroupolis
Helliniko 10 April 2013
Press Release
Volunteers are increasing, but it
is time for the state to act now
The greatness of
humanity, dignity, mutual aid and support is evidenced daily in the actions of
ordinary citizens - in contrast to the official state which has gone deaf these
last years of the memorandum and its austerity.
So many independent
groups pop up all the time to answer some of the needs of those without shelter
or means. Community clinics and
pharmacies appear and multiply in an effort to fill the immense void created by the official state and an effort to
support public health – which the state has neglected.
Three years ago,
unemployed and uninsured citizens ceased to have a place in the National Public
Health System. Accounting has taken over
(income, expenses) without centering the whole thing around the human
individual. It’s now an inhuman National
Health System that runs a country where unemployment will likely reach 30% and
a country which has been flooded by about a million uninsured immigrants. So a third of the population is medically
totally unprotected. This system
condemns to death those who have serious illnesses but no means to pay; it
endangers all public health in the country – a country where a pregnant woman
cannot afford a hospital at which to give birth and avoid the street.
Community Clinics and
pharmacies are doing their utmost to plug the hole the state has left. But if they cannot fully replace the state in
providing primary health care, they most certainly cannot tackle more advanced
care which necessitates hospitalization and surgery.
At this moment, there
are ten patients in this one clinic who are in need of immediate
hospitalization. There are also pregnant
women who can not afford expenses of a birth at a maternity hospital. We are desperately trying to cope with an
impossible situation.
· We DEMAND THAT PUBLIC HOPSITAL AND MATERNITY
HOSPITALS OPEN THEIR DOORS to the unemployed and uninsured who cannot afford to
pay. We believe in doing our best to protect the health of all individuals – in
fact to protect public health itself.
· The Ministry of Health has to put into effect
the program it proposed three months ago regarding uninsured patients and to
stop “looking on” at what happens to these people.
· We must all work together stop the annihilation
of these vulnerable poor before it becomes a GENOCIDE
