Representative of the Ministry of Health Revealed on the BBC

Helliniko 18 July 2013

PRESS RELEASE

Representative of the Ministry of Health Revealed on the BBC

We don’t easily send out any press release accusing anyone, no matter what his position, of falsehood.  However, when Mr. Panos Efstathiou, an administrator of the National Center of Health of the Ministry of Health, looks straight into the camera and lies to a BBC reporter, we feel that we have to say something.  The BBC reporter, Zeinab Badawi interviewed Mr. Efstathiou and asked him if allegations were valid that uninsured patients were required to pay large sums for life saving operations and were, therefore were essentially shut out of the public health service.

The dialogue was as follows:

Ms. Badawi:  On the sufficient evidence of a health crisis in Greece, I thought it was time to take my concerns to the Ministry of Health in Athens. (Speaking to Mr. Efstathiou) Is it the case that anybody in Greece who cannot afford to buy necessary drugs from the pharmacists or who needs an operation, if they cannot afford to pay, that the state will provide adequate care?

Mr. Efstathiou:  Mrs. Badawi, in Greece, the large majority of Greeks are insured in the public health system.  There are people who cannot afford their insurance scheme because they did not have the money, because they are in a difficult economic situation.  The government has decided that this will not affect their treatment in the national health care system.

Ms Badawi:  I’ve met one elderly man who needed a life saving operation.  He got it, but it cost him €6,000.  The hospital was pursuing him for payment.  But it was causing him and his family a great deal of stress.  Do you accept that that kind of cases is going on and that he is perhaps one of many?

Mr. Efstathiou:  There is no such case.  There is no one who uses the Public Health System who will have to pay any money.

Ms. Badawi:  The fact that there is an increasing number of community clinics that has grown from a hand-full last year to now nearly 40 would show that there is a greater need on the part of the people for such free voluntary services.

Mr. Efstathiou:  I would say that I see it differently. There is an effort for people to help one another.  That is evidence that a society, operating in austerity and difficulty.  These are positive signs for a civilization and society.  Not signs of disintegration.

You can see the video with the above dialogue here: 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCT8B31x7U4

A question for the Ministry of Health and specifically for the newly named Minster, Mr. Georgiadis, why does an official of the ministry lie, on camera and why does he try to distract people from the essence of the problem which is nothing more than the inhuman policies instituted by the Ministry allowing uninsured citizens to die without aid, since they do not have money to pay for the hospital or their medications?

Will the Minister of Health back up Mr. Efstathiou, or will he dismiss him.  Also, will they answer, at last, Mr. Minister what will happen with the hundreds of thousands of uninsured patients who have DO NOT HAVE FREE ACCESS to the Public Health System?  Are they just to be allowed to die?  For how long will this problem be ignored as his predecessors ignored it?  For how long will we put the reduction of expenses above the lives of our fellow citizens?

The Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko will continue to denounce the unacceptable policies of austerity which result in harming Greek citizens.  Cancer patients, pregnant women, the young and the old are left to fend for themselves.  This must stop immediately.  We demand a clear answer about what you intend to do!

You can watch the whole BBC reportage here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rkKhwg0EPM&feature=youtu.be

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037b5kg