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Greece: Bright spots in a sea of ​​misery

Across the crisis in Greece, solidarity clinics have emerged that are crucial to hundreds of thousands of Greeks.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

"We want our own death," says Sfyri Evgenia.

She speaks on behalf of the Metropolitan Clinic where she works – one of many solidarity clinics that provide health care and medical care to needy Greeks. The offer is free and the work is based on volunteerism. The clinics count 51 across the country, and 20 only in the metropolitan area. They began to emerge under the pressure of the economic crisis and in the wake of the broad protest movement in 2011.

“We demand that health be recognized as public responsibility. But it's far ahead, ”Evgenia says. "The prevailing conditions do not exactly invite us to put ourselves down."

Metropolitan's history began in the autumn of 2011, and it is today the largest of the Greek solidarity clinics. Evgenia presents the handwritten registration of patient reception. The last name on the list is the man who stopped by late this afternoon. He is considered patient number 64 622.

"This year we have had over 1000 visits every month," she says.

Over 300 volunteers are attached to the clinic, including over 100 doctors. In addition, dentists, pharmacists and other groups of health professionals work here.

No one should stand alone. Right inside the entrance hall hangs a large poster, which with large types announces that "no one should stand alone". The same slogan permeated the large protest movement in 2011. The year before, Greece's creditors had imposed on the Greeks the first memorandum of dramatic cuts in public services. Fundamental social and democratic rights were put on the boat. The people protested. For two whole months, the Greeks occupied the main streets of all the major cities.

"As the movement erupted, we brought the slogan with us into our own communities and our everyday lives," Evgenia says.

The authorities disappeared. The whole neighborhood was paralyzed. Services and infrastructure lost. People felt that they were left to themselves. There was fertile ground for right-wing forces. The Nazi Party Golden Dawn moved in with its vigilante groups and declared, "We'll fix you up." For a few months, the Nazis parted with 17-18 percent support for polls.

“We realized that we have to organize ourselves. That we must stand together and take care of common affairs together, and that we must build on solidarity and equal rights. ”

This is how the Metropolitan Clinic grew, and this is how the whole broad movement of Greek solidarity groups arose. "The movement is gaining ground in many different areas, and we are part of it. We all follow the same principles. " Sfyri Evgenia points to the ideological cornerstones on which the solidarity clinics rest. They are centered around the recognition of health as a fundamental human right. The organization takes place from below and is the local population's own work. Work methods and decision-making processes aim to involve as many people as possible. They shoulder the role as a counterforce to the social exclusion and alienation that mass unemployment and major poverty problems breed.

Solidarity is breadth. The practice is in sharp contrast to the growing tendency to look at health as a commodity. Money is a non-issue here – all treatment is free and based on voluntary and unpaid work.

"Inclusion and community are also health," says Evgenia. “Both we who treat and those who are treated are affected by the crisis. We understand the pain of each other. We make the invisible visible. We try to give hope in a hopeless time, "she says, and continues:" We believe in the true meaning of the concept of solidarity: that solidarity is horizontal, and not something that happens from above. We don't do charity. Change is needed, and charity is really no force in that fight. On the contrary."

At the same time, the clinics work closely with other solidarity groups. “When we see that our patients are having trouble getting enough food, we are announcing to groups working on food distribution. If they are unable to pay debts and expenses, and may be at risk of losing their home, we will put them in contact with teams who can provide free legal assistance. This is how we enforce 'the expanded concept of health', "she states. "Health is not just treatment and medication."

Two doctors of 80 people. The health clinics have been of crucial importance to hundreds of thousands of Greeks. For many, it has been about life and death. The health service in the country has collapsed – with serious consequences for public health. The Troika's regime has led to health appropriations in 2016 accounting for just under four per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared with an average of seven per cent among euro area countries. In addition, Greek gross domestic product has fallen by 25 per cent during the crisis years. The health budget has more than halved compared with the allocations in 2009. At the same time, calculations show that the need for health care has increased by 35 per cent from 2010 to 2015.

I meet Vasilis Kiriakis. He is a physician and former parliamentary representative for the Syriza government party. The numbers he puts on the table leave a terrifying picture.

“In 2012, 4285 positions were vacant in Greek hospitals, but only 153 people were employed. At the same time, the statistics show that the rate between admissions and discharge was 1:28, he says, and goes on to describe the situation in his own hometown:

"In Lamia, there is only one primary health center with responsibility for 80 people. The station is staffed by two doctors. Previously, there were 000 positions. "

Worst of all, a third of the population was deprived of the right to health care. The financing of public health services in Greece is mainly based on an insurance system. Health insurance is linked to the employment relationship. If you lost your job, you lost the right to health services – and the loss of health insurance also affects the other family members. In the same way, the most vulnerable were referred to pay almost full price for medicines – a heavy burden for the elderly and sick.

Infant mortality has risen by 30-40 percent over the past five years.

Public health is suffering. The prevailing conditions have left deep traces in Greek public health. Both due to the scale of the economic and social crisis, and due to direct failures in the health services. Infant mortality has increased by 30-40 percent in the last five years. Mortality among the general population has also increased. This is partly due to the fact that many do not have the opportunity to seek help for serious symptoms, and that patients with chronic disorders do not receive follow-up and control. The number of suicides in the years 2010–2015 counts 10, and represents an increase of 000 percent. Depression affects 45 percent of the population in 2,9, and has risen to 2009 percent today. The incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes has risen significantly. In developing countries, infectious diseases are a common cause of morbidity and mortality, and now this has increased sharply in Greece as well. The number of HIV cases has increased sharply, while the frequency of tuberculosis has doubled. Nilfeber has made its entrance, and for the first time in 4,7 years, the Greeks have had two outbreaks of malaria as a result of local infection.

Little faith in change. Since the change of government in January last year, many have hoped for radical change. In April this year, Parliament passed a bill that apparently guarantees people without health insurance equal access to health care. It is welcomed as a step forward among solidarity clinics.

"We are now urging patients who come here to seek public health care instead," says Sfyri Evgenia. At the same time, skepticism is great.

The number of suicides in the years 2010–2015 counts 10, and represents an increase of 000 percent.

“We are watching closely, and fear that many will come back to us. We have already begun to notice it, ”she says.

The pending and critical attitude has several reasons: “The most important thing is that resources have not increased. On the contrary, we expect that there will be more cuts, ”says Christos Sideris. He is a physician and responsible for international relations at the Metropolitan Clinic. Sideris points out that the government must administer the third memorandum it was pressed to sign in July last year, and that the requirements for the state budget surplus grow from 0,5 per cent of GDP this year to 3,5 per cent in 2018. It is the same time little reason to believe in substantial economic growth, and creditors are holding the government in tight rein.

“Now, the same minimized health care system will suddenly take on another three million people who have previously been without rights. What we have seen from the new government so far is mostly posing and empty pr-stunts, ”he says. Allocations to the hospital sector are now even lower than last year. For groups with particularly low incomes, the free medication scheme has been discontinued. At the same time, the government's plans to withdraw provisional schemes for primary health services will make the situation even worse next year.

As I leave the Metropolitan clinic, my gaze falls on another of the posters hanging on the entrance hall wall:

"As long as the cut politics and brutality persist, we will continue to fight."



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