Health crisis: crowded corridors of hospitals with attached beds

January, which is coming to an end tomorrow, has been a month that has tested the strength of Greece’s already struggling national health care system.

The virus outbreak that has swept the country since the festive season has brought thousands of patients to emergency departments (EDs) of hospitals across the country, forcing doctors, nurses and paramedics to open closets to once again use side beds.

Nurses and orderlies install new beds in the hallways

The most typical example is the capital’s Attikon hospital, where, after an eight-hour wait, patients who were considered necessary to be admitted for treatment… are located in the corridors, next to those who are waiting their turn for a preliminary examination.

The newspaper “TA NEA” visited the main medical institutions of Attica, where they filmed footage that goes back to the middle of the last century, spoke with employees and recorded their complaints that the health care system is on the verge of collapse. Yiannis Plagianakos, president of the workers’ union of the General University Hospital of Attikon, describes the reality that his colleagues will have to face at the dawn of 2024.

“The problem of beds is not new. This is something that has been going on for many years. We have already said that Attikon is a “champion” in terms of patient admissions. Just the day before yesterday we received 90 patients,” he says, noting that as a result of the cocktail of viral infections and the rapid increase in respiratory infections, pathology clinics are overcrowded. “During on-call hours, the number of admissions is between 100 and 120 people, and the average waiting time in the intensive care unit is six to eight hours.”

Relies on paper

However, the phenomenon of a shortage of beds is not limited to Attikon. The president of the Athens-Piraeus Hospital Doctors’ Union (EINAP), Matina Pagoni, says that in the Athens general hospital “Giorgos Gennimatas” “additional” beds are used as a last resort, due to overcrowding in the wards. “We cannot allow patients to wait in the emergency department until beds become available.” she notes, adding that the issue was raised at a recent meeting with Health Minister Adonis Georgiades to find solutions.

“Two months ago, the pathology department had an average of 50 admissions in four days. Now we have reached figures of 60 and 80 admissions in four days. Of these, more than 50% are respiratory infections,” says Olga Cosmopoulou, infectious disease specialist at the General Hospital of Nice-Piraeus “Agios Panteleimon” and member of the Board of Directors of HINAP, reflecting the degree of saturation of “regular” hospital beds.

For his part, Panagiotis Papanikolaou, neurosurgeon, representative of doctors of the General Hospital of Nice and secretary general of the Federation of Greek Hospital Physicians Associations (OENGE), explains that under normal conditions, in a stable health system, an increase in the number of hospitalizations should not threaten the normal functioning of hospitals. “After all, on paper the NHS has more than 30,000 beds and more than 1,000 intensive care beds.” – he notes meaningfully.

Meanwhile, according to Michalis Giannakos, President of the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers (ΠΟΕΔΗΝ), the shortage of beds during peak periods is exacerbated by the fact that about 500 indigent patients remain in hospital after hospitalization. “These people have no place to live., he says, pointing to the moral impasse doctors and nurses face. – Therefore, not only the health care system is sick, but also the social security system.”

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