In Athens, "the poorest can die..."

A Greek pensioner manifests: "No to the commercialization of the public health system", can we read on his

placard, March 20 in Athens. (Photo Louisa Gouliamaki. AFP)

The austerity policy carried out in Greece under the aegis of Brussels and the International Monetary Fund leaves a bloodless health system, where low income means absence of care.

Apparently, everything is fine. Under the Athens sun, the tourists are already there, the café terraces are full of people and, in the mildness of the beginning of summer, nothing suggests the crisis or the effects of the austerity policy. Which will however be at the center of the concerns of the Greeks during the European elections on Sunday, marked by the announced breakthrough of the protest vote. Either in favor of Syriza, the party of the radical left, or in favor of the neo-Nazis of Golden Dawn, the only two formations which openly denounce the demands of Brussels and the brutal impoverishment they have caused.

“Ghost Babies”."Do not be fooled by appearances, suggests writer Christos Chrissopoulos. Greece can still offer an attractive image. But, among all the people who are in this bar this evening, half are unemployed and no longer have social security coverage. Life goes on but, for many, it has become very precarious, even risky.” The young novelist will vote for Syriza, "only possible alternative" to the austerity policy vigorously pursued by the coalition of conservatives and socialists in power for two years.

Despite the reassuring speeches of the right-wing Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras, who promises the imminent return to growth, one in three Greeks lives today with a simple obsession: falling ill. Out of 10 million Greeks, more than 3,5 million no longer have any health insurance. It is automatically abolished after one year of unemployment or even immediately for the liberal professions. "In concrete terms, this means that if these people cannot pay out of pocket, they are driven out of public hospitals: this is what the government is openly demanding, which has also imposed a 25% reduction in the hospital budget. », notes Doctor Liana Miailli.

This dynamic pediatrician works on a voluntary basis at the dispensary of the Greek branch of Médecins du monde, in Perama. In this working-class suburb that borders the sea, not far from the port of Piraeus, poverty suddenly imposes itself without false modesty. Here, cafes are empty and many shops are walled up, adorned with "for sale" signs. A strange silence reigns in the deserted streets, and the only perceptible animation is precisely in front of this dispensary which agrees to treat those who no longer have health insurance. In the waiting room, young women in leggings and sweatshirts rub shoulders with men in jeans: normal people, seemingly ordinary. “When you have cancer and you no longer take care of it, you don't necessarily see it right away. And yet people are sick, they are often hungry. Many children suffer from malnutrition,” explains Liana Miailli with a bitter smile.

That day, she examines little Panagiota, a pretty blonde with blue eyes of 11 months. “She has a flagrant growth retardation”, worries the pediatrician, who has not forgotten the child's previous visits: “I spoke to his mother about fruits and vegetables, and she suddenly broke down in tears: she is a young unemployed single mother who lives with her parents. They are six in reality to live on the modest retirement of the grandfather of the little Panagiota. So sometimes they don't eat." tell the D^r Meowed.

At the time of its creation, the Greek branch of Doctors of the World was supposed to ensure above all humanitarian missions in Africa. She kept only Uganda. “I went there and found that it was better in Uganda, explains the pediatrician again. At least there are vaccination campaigns for children there. Here, the government has decided to close all free vaccination centers. Result: when both parents are unemployed, which is now common, it has become too expensive. Unless they come here."

Perhaps the most shocking case is that of "ghost babies", as Eleni Chronopoulou, another volunteer at the Perama clinic, calls them. “In principle, hospitals cannot refuse a delivery, even for women without social security, explains the young woman. But, when the mother cannot pay, some hospitals keep the baby until the parents pay the unpaid 700 euros. It is less frequent today, except that some confiscate identity papers or refuse to issue the birth certificate. As a result, some mothers without medical coverage borrow the still active card of a loved one by changing the photo. The baby is then declared under a false name, with all the administrative complications that entails. They are the ghost babies.”

"Incompetence". According to the medical journal The Lancet, infant mortality has increased by 43% and the number of stillbirths by 21% since the beginning of the crisis. In March, the government abruptly decided to close all health centers dependent on Social Security, laying off more than 5 doctors. Another network has been set up, "where everything is obviously paying", underlines the D^r Mailli, who evokes a traumatized society “by three years of unilateral decisions which have contributed to the brutal collapse of the standard of living”.

“I have often wondered why the government acted this way: out of incompetence, out of real concern for economy? sighs Giannis Vichas, a 51-year-old cardiologist. But all these patients who are no longer treated, all these new risks of contagion or epidemic for lack of vaccines will necessarily have a cost. So there is only one explanation, and it is ideological: the poorest can die.” The practitioner opened a clinic at the end of 2011 which, like that of Doctors of the World, treats those who no longer have social security coverage free of charge. “27 patients have come here and we now have 000 similar centers across the country,” explains the D^r Vichas, who has clashed several times with the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis.

A particular personality than this one: virulent orator and host of a nationalist television program entitled the uprising of the Greeks, Georgiadis has made a name for himself in the past as a publisher of anti-Semitic books and an ardent defender of the dictatorship. His medical knowledge, on the other hand, is less known.

“We will continue the fight”, sighs the D^r Vichas looking gloomily around the waiting room of his clinic. A simple house in the middle of a no man's land, located right next to a now abandoned American base. The district is called Helliniko, in reference to the name of the nearby former airport. Recently, the government sold this very well located site, along the seafront, for 915 million euros to a wealthy shipowner domiciled in Switzerland. A real gift, because the land is estimated at nearly 20 billion euros. And it is the Greek taxpayers who will have to pay for the development work, while perhaps supporting further cuts in health budgets.

Maria MALAGARDIS Special Envoy to Athens

 

Source (s): Liberation.fr via Master Confucius