The Ministry of Health has ordered 200 private clinics for Covid-19 patients in Thessaloniki, as the ultimatum given to the owners of the clinics expired at 9:00 on Thursday night. The situation in the city's hospitals is at a breaking point due to the high spread of SARS-CoV-2.
In the relevant document of the Secretary General of the Health Services to the Panhellenic Association of Private Clinics and the Association of Greek Clinics it is stated that written invitations have been sent, but also verbal ones have been made for the voluntary availability of hospital beds for Covid-19 patients within the regional unit of Thessaloniki, due to the special emergency and urgent conditions prevailing from the spread of Covid-19 and their members have refused.
The KKE calls for the government to order private clinics now
“It is unthinkable even now, just before the hospitals in Thessaloniki sink, that the government continues to negotiate with the clinicians to whom it has already paid millions of euros and who are already doing golden business because the NHS is unable to deal with non-covid cases.”, the party organisation of Central Macedonia of the KKE said in a statement.
“The government's letter to private clinics is an admission of the criminal nature of its policy,” he says, adding, ”It should already know how many beds are available in the private sector. It should already have had a plan on how to integrate the services of which facilities and with what staff. That is why it should have long ago commandeered these operations without conditions or strings attached. But he chose to recognize them as an opportunity to increase their revenues at a time when people were losing their lives.”.
The KKE calls on the government “without further delay, without waiting for any more “understanding” from the clinicians, to requisition all their units now (without purchasing services from the state and without compensation) and include them in the national pandemic response plan”.
MPA25: Immediate ordering of ICUs without negotiations and scandalous compensation
The requisition of the private sector ICUs in Thessaloniki «without negotiations and scandalous compensation», calls in a statement by MPA25. It is possible, it adds, «the government still begging clinicians?». According to MERA25, there are two explanations: «Either the management by Mr Mitsotakis and Mr Kikilias is so irresponsible or it is a criminal application of ideological obsessions and serving interests. Let them tell us which of the two equally nightmarish scenarios is true, so that citizens can weigh the size and nature of the responsibility.».
