ATHENS, April 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Hundreds of Greek healthcare workers demonstrated against working conditions and manpower and equipment shortages in public hospitals fighting the coronavirus pandemic.
The Tuesday demonstrations coincided with World Health Day, according to the federation of hospital personnel.
“You only saw us when we covered our faces,” proclaimed a poster printed by hospital trade unions, bearing a picture of doctors wearing anti-coronavirus masks.
Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said the country was dedicating World Health Day to medical staff battling on the coronavirus front line.
“We shall dedicate this day to Greek scientists, researchers, doctors, carers and ambulance drivers who have joined the battle against the coronavirus in Greece and abroad. We are proud of them and thank them,” Sakellaropoulou tweeted.
Despite her support, feelings are running high among under pressure health workers even if Greece, a country of some 10.7 million people, has suffered relatively less than other European nations in the pandemic, recording 81 deaths out of 1,755 cases.
Demonstrators at the large Evangelismos hospital in central Athens held up signs demanding more staff, virus testing and hospital equipment.
Police tried to enter the hospital courtyard where the rally was taking place before being forced back by demonstrators.
Similar protests were held at hospitals in the northern city of Thessaloniki and in Larissa in central Greece, according to television reports.
Despina Tossonidou, president of the doctors’ union at Voula hospital in southern Athens, said that in addition to hiring more medical staff, intensive care units in private clinics should be requisitioned “to overcome the shortcomings of the public sector” during the virus crisis.
Healthcare in Greece was hit badly by the country’s 2010-2018 financial crisis and the tough austerity measures demanded by creditors in exchange for massive debt bailouts.
