A few days ago, the resignation of the lung specialist at the Health Centre of Milos brought back to the surface a well-known problem, but this year - due to the large tourist wave - it seems to have taken on even greater dimensions. The reason is the lack of housing for doctors (teachers, police officers, etc.) who are willing to work on the islands, but cannot find accommodation and are faced with enormous inconvenience.
As stated in the announcement issued by the Health Centre of Milos: «The pulmonologist left the island due to the inability to find a decent accommodation for her stay». However, similar situations are recorded on other islands.
Speaking to «K» about the housing issue that for several years has been a deterrent for the staffing of the hospital of Santorini with medical and nursing staff, the orthopedic surgeon Vassilis Angelis explains the reasons for the problem: «At the beginning of the summer, the local media made appeals to the municipality, hoteliers and residents to find a house so that a couple of doctors could come to the island. We need their specialities very much. In the end, no solution was found and the doctors were forced to leave the island.».
«They ask where they will stay»
According to Mr.Angelis, notices are constantly being issued to cover the medical positions. «In the two years that I have been in Santorini, many doctors have contacted to express their interest, but as you can understand the first thing they ask is where they will stay», explains Mr. Angelis and adds: «Most of them are not willing to stay in the ... now famous commune with its shared kitchen and shared bathroom, where many of the island's hospital workers stay. Imagine this commune as a hostel. A similar one exists for nurses and paramedics. It was suggested to me to stay there when I came to the island two years ago, but I am married with a child, so the commune was not an option for me.».
The problem with the hospital of Santorini is that it does not offer the attractions that apply to other hospitals in the barren lines, such as grading, bonuses and grade progression, notes in «K» Mr. Angelis. Thus, at the moment the following specialties are absent from the hospital: cardiologist, pathologist and microbiologist, while there is only one pediatrician and one anesthesiologist. The latter, although he has retired, remains in his post to help since he is not being replaced.
«The pneumologist was wandering around the island»
In Milos, however, before the pulmonologist resigned, there had been an incident after the decision of the president of the Health Centre to use part of the rural clinic in Adamas to create a 50 sq.m. apartment so that the orthopaedist could be housed. The mayor sued the president of the Health Centre and the case is still unresolved.
Speaking to «K» both for this incident and for the resignation of the pulmonologist, the Costas Makris, president of the Health Centre said the following: «After 35 long years it was possible to bring the specialties of orthopedist and pulmonologist to the island. For the first time, doctors from these specialties have responded to our request. Finally, we managed to keep one seat and that after some incidents».
Mr Makris describes that in the case of the lung specialist the same thing happened as with the couple of doctors in the Santorini hospital: the doctors arrive on the island, try to find a house, «wander around» for a few days and in the end, disheartened, they leave.
«Everyone knows by now that the key issue on the islands is the incentives. In Milos, for example, the mayor gives an allowance of 450 euros, and advertises that he will offer free accommodation. This is what the local authorities had promised me, that they would provide us with accommodation for the orthopaedist and the pulmonologist. In the end, when the time came, they did not. They left me exposed. Similar situations occur with teachers, but also with port officials. In Milos, some of the latter have been forced to stay in the inflatable boats. And how can they do otherwise when even in the off season they are asked 450 euros for 25 square meters? These are the prices in the Cyclades» says Mr Makris.
Regarding the issue of the two doctors, after the confrontation that erupted between the mayor and the president of the Health Centre, the orthopaedic surgeon finally managed to stay in the house that a well-known volleyball athlete offered for free.
«But the same did not happen with the pulmonologist who came from Thessaloniki for a three-year term of office», Mr Makris notes and continues: «She came all the way here and the housing issue was pending. For a week I was... running from rented room to rented room. Then she found a house without a washing machine, she had to go somewhere else to wash her clothes. Finally, after eight days she left, not for the laundry of course, but because she realized that she would not be provided, for a long time, with a decent place to live. If, in the meantime, the mayor had not prevented the completion of the apartment at the Adamas rural dispensary, she could have stayed there and not been lost. Let me say that the building is a municipal building, but its use is licensed to the Ministry of Health. And the interventions I made did not require planning permission.».
«K» contacted the pulmonologist, who confirmed the above and stressed that there was no help from the local community in finding a house for her to work on the island.
Dimitra Triantafyllou
