Greece is exhibit A.
Greek hospitals are in such dire straits that staff are failing to keep up basic disease controls such as using gloves and gowns, threatening a rise in multi-drug-resistant infections, according to Europe's top health official.
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With fewer doctors and nurses to look after more patients, and hospitals running low on cash for supplies, risks are being taken even with basic hygiene, said Marc Sprenger, director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
"I have seen places...where the financial situation did not allow even for basic requirements like gloves, gowns and alcohol wipes," Sprenger said after a two-day trip to Athens, where he visited hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
http://www.reuters.com/...
Greece spends 11 billion euros ($14.4 billion) a year on its healthcare system - accounting for just over 5 percent of its total economic output. The government says the system is around 2 billion euros in debt and spending must be cut drastically.
Many health workers have lost their jobs and others say they have not been properly paid for months. A banner hung up by doctors outside Athens Evangelismos hospital in October said simply: "The health system is bleeding".
Exhausted doctors at Greece's 133 state hospitals cite a lack of staff as well as basic supplies such as cotton wool, catheters, gloves and paper used to cover examination beds.
Panos Papanicolaou, a member of a doctors' union and a neurosurgeon at Athens' Nikea General Hospital, said staff cuts mean as many as 90 to 100 patients a day wait in corridors with many unable to
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Greece could soon face even more problems with its health care system if it runs out of money to buy drugs.
Another health official who asked to remain anonymous said a senior Athens hospital worker had told him there was no budget left for supplies at that hospital, so all its drug purchases were on credit.
Germany's Merck KGaA said last month it was no longer delivering its cancer drug Erbitux to Greek hospitals , and Biotest, which makes products from blood plasma to treat haemophilia and tetanus, stopped shipments in June because of unpaid bills.
Greece is literally killing itself to satisfy the demands of the EU, EB and IMF. And to stay in the euro, where it never belonged in the first place. It would be far better off defaulting, leaving the euro and bringing back the drachma. In the meantime, people will die and disease will spread, all to statisfy the bankers and Germany.