Cancer patients queue in the cold while waiting for chemotherapy (video)

Two to three hours before the oncology department of one of the largest hospitals in Athens opens its gates at 7 am, cancer patients waiting for chemotherapy are already standing outside in the predawn darkness, in the low November morning temperatures.

Shocking and shameful suffering for sick people, forced to wait hours for their turn. “Every day from a quarter to five, endless queues form, patients are looking forward to the opening of the hospital,” the TV channel said. OPEN Thursday morning. Worried patients say that while they have no problem with the medical staff and nurses, the problem lies with the administration and management of the hospital, as they cannot get appointments for treatment. According to them, although they have an appointment for a specific day, they do not have an appointment for the exact time to start chemotherapy. The lack of prior organization forces them to leave their homes early in the morning and queue for hours.

Because there is no device for “queue numbers,” patients make up their own by writing down the numbers on pieces of paper so that there is some sort of order of precedence. Those who come after 6-6:30 in the morning are unlikely to get the procedure on this day …

“What to do? In order not to kill each other, we ourselves create a queue, because we arrive at 4, 4:30 or 5 o’clock,” says a middle-aged woman. She notes that the staff is very good, but the problem is that there are many patients and there is no organization. “It’s going to be even colder this week. What are we going to do? Are we going to sit here? We’re all sick, we’ve had surgeries, we’re all in poor health. I’ve had an operation, I had a kidney removed… Management needs to do something about it.”

And it’s not just patients living in Athens and the suburbs. Several people came from the island of Kalymnos, located off the Turkish coast. Usually they arrive 1-2 days earlier, undergo a course of therapy, and the next appointment is scheduled in two weeks.

The man says that he also comes here every two weeks and every time he wonders if they will give him a chair in the hospital. “Shouldn’t I know in advance if I will have a place where I can sit? The exact time of my chemotherapy appointment? Usually I have to wait until the patient who came before me leaves so that I can come in,” the man complains.

For some patients, chemotherapy lasts one hour, for others three, and for some six. Add to this the waiting time, 2 hours at best, and the extra hassle for frail and frail cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy is enormous. An 84-year-old man complains: “My legs are shaking.” He has been waiting in line, standing against the side of the building for more than an hour. Management used to let them wait inside, but that practice has now ended, the man said.

Video: Live on OPEN TV until 6 am.

In the comments on Youtube, some Greeks wrote that this situation has been going on for quite a long time, while others added that in some hospital in Thessaloniki this happens daily. According to the reporter, this cancer ward is run by donations from a well-known family of shipowners, implying that management is doing nothing on their part to comfort cancer patients or find a solution. Those waiting at the entrance say they don’t know if management is aware of the situation.

PS Since the report is posted on all media sites, chances are high that the management of Laiko hospital will finally wake up one morning at 4 o’clock and find a solution. However, the author does not believe at all that the country’s leadership will seriously deal with the problem of state medicine, which every year is increasingly turning into a fiction.

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