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Riot police scuffle with medical staff Athens Protests were held during the Prime Minister’s visit to the public hospital on Wednesday over the state of public health services. Kyriakos Mitsotakis,
Police According to local media reports, those in riot gear fired pepper spray and used shields and batons to repel doctors at the University General Hospital Attikon who were demanding a meeting with Mitsotakis. Health workers were protesting against staff shortages, low pay and poor working conditions.
Mitsotakis, accompanied by Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, was visiting the hospital in western Athens to attend the inauguration of a new oncology department and tour the renovated emergency department.
“They think we’re going to thank them because they owe us 10,000 days of vacation. They think we’re going to thank them for keeping our salaries stable,” said Giorgos Sideris, head of the Association of Hospital Doctors of Athens and Piraeus.
Sideris, a doctor at the hospital, said 130 patients were recently sleeping on stretchers in corridors due to overcrowding and an additional 125 nursing staff were urgently needed “just to operate at a safety level.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said the hospital’s new oncology ward was built with funding from a charity organization, and is expected to care for more than 20,000 patients per year, a 41% increase from 2019.
Speaking during the inauguration, Mitsotakis said regular funding for Etikon had increased from 90 million euros ($104.5 million) to 150 million euros. Staffing levels have also increased, he said, “not to the level we would like, but we will continue to push for this great effort to comprehensively restructure the national health system.”