Who Fears The Truth?

PRESS RELEASE

Who Fears The Truth?

The truth is that if a citizen goes to a Greek Public Hospital for help, he has to be insured or to foot the hospital bill.  Otherwise the cost is passed on to the Treasury as a debt to be followed by the pressure one is subjected to in collecting what is “owed” according to the tax laws.  What it comes down to is that the poor patient is between a rock and a hard place: does he commit his family to debt, or does he ignore the doctor’s advice by not going to the hospital.

The truth is that even if a patient who cannot afford a necessary operation decides he must submit to it, even then he faces a bureaucratic nightmare.

The truth is that the Greek Health Minister has been informed by our clinic about the ten extremely serous cases of desperate patients who were in need of immediate hospitalisation as early as the 9^th of December 2013 and again on the 19^th of the same month.  In addition, the Ministry had been officially informed (reference number 3325-12-13) by the General Secretariat of the Government.

The truth is that the Ministry reacted only on the 2^nd of January 2014.  After our S.O.S. messages and articles crying for help, a sizeable number of conscientious citizens, inundated the Ministry’s office with protests.  Then – and only then – did the Ministry deign to ask us for the list of the ten serious cases and we were asked to co-operate with them for their admission to public hospitals – which we obviously did immediately.

At that moment, we were informed of the death of the 66 year old patient on the list and who, before coming to the community clinic, had already visited two public hospitals where he was told that if he could not pay for tests and hospitalization he could not be admitted.  He left with only some medication recommended to him.

The truth is that finally this patient was admitted to a public hospital.  But the fact that the patient was left with no treatment from mid-October until a few days before his death simply because he had no insurance, must have affected the outcome.

The truth is that there was no meeting scheduled for the Clinic with the Ministry of Health on 13 November 2013.  At our initiative, we had arranged a meeting on 10 October 2013 in the belief that our delegation would be able to discuss several issues with the Minister.  It is obvious, because of the date, that that appointment had ABOSOLUTELY NO relation to the issue of the ten uninsured patients, let alone the 66 year old patient who at that point, had not visited our Clinic.  That meeting was cancelled because of urgent circumstances and not because of “political games” as stated by the minister.

The truth is that the political games are played by the politicians, and not by ordinary citizens.  Because it is a “political game” to ignore the appeals of a community clinic, not to mention the General Secretariat of the Government, for more than a month for these ten uninsured patients, but as soon as soon as they feel pressure from the public, through the media, a solution is found within a few hours. 

It’s a political game when the Minister personally states that he has given carte blanch for public hospitals to receive the uninsured in urgent cases without clarifying the entire procedure or conditions for receiving this care.

It follows that we, as a volunteer community clinic are not solely focused on this terrible case; there are countless other tragic cases, and illness doesn’t wait for signatures and paperwork.  We will continue to serve all those who are in need and we are ready to cooperate with any and all so as to find a solution to the major issue of access for all to the Public Health System without exception or exclusion.

METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY CLINIC AT HELLENIKO 

  Working Hours
(MONDAY - FRIDAY 10:00 - 20:00)  and (SATURDAY 10:00 - 14:00) 
CONTACT PHONE NUMBER: +30 210 9631950 
ADDRESS: Inside the old American Military Base, 200m away from the Traffic Police of the Municipality of Helleniko, next to the Cultural Center of Helleniko
Post code TK16777, Elliniko, Attiki, Greece 
Blog http://mkie-foreign.blogspot.gr/ Email mkiellinikou@gmail.com