Ως χαρακτηριστικό παράδειγμα και συγκεκριμένα «σύμβολο»
της «εποχής της οικονομικής κρίσης στην Ελλάδα» αναφέρει το ζήτημα της μη λειτουργίας
του νοσοκομείου της Σαντορίνης η δημοφιλής γαλλική σελίδα france24.com
σε ρεπορτάζ της για το θέμα με τίτλο : A childbirth odyssey in austerity-hit Greece, (μτφ. Η οδύσσεια ενός τοκετού
στην ελλάδα της λιτότητας) το οποίο αναφέρεται παράλληλα στην ιστορία της Γεωργίας
Ν. και στις οικονομικές της, μεταξύ άλλων και κατά συνέπεια, περιπέτειες, κατά την
διαδικασία των τοκετών της, που υποχρεωτικά γίνονται μακριά από τον τόπο
διαμονής της, την Σαντορίνη.
Σύμφωνα με το κείμενο,
A childbirth
odyssey in austerity-hit Greece
The island of
Santorini, located in the Cyclades archipelago in southern Greece, is often
said to be one of the world's most beautiful. But although it may be paradise
on earth for tourists, it is less so for local residents. Our Observer there
explains that she will be forced to give birth on the faraway mainland because
Greece’s drastic austerity policies have severely diminished the medical
services available on the island.
Georgia N. is a
Greek resident of Santorini. When she was pregnant with her first child in
2011, she discovered that she suffered from gestational diabetes, a type of
diabetes that appears during pregnancy.
The construction
of a 50-bed hospital began in 2008. It was supposed to be operational for the
birth of my first child and to have all the required equipment: several
maternity and delivery rooms, examination rooms… everything that someone like
me, who was diagnosed with pregnancy-related diabetes, would need. I waited
until the last moment, but when I saw that the hospital was still not open, I
decided to travel to Athens to give birth. I spent a month under observation in
order to take all the tests, but if I had been able to give birth in Santorini,
I would only have had to stay for a week at most. At the time, I figured that
at least my next child would be born on Santorini.
Now, four years
later, I am pregnant with my second child, with an expected due date of January
2015 — and history is repeating itself. The hospital has still not opened due
to cuts in public health funding and a lack of doctors. Because of my diabetes,
I need to take blood tests every three weeks with a specialised doctor. I must
take a boat or a plane to travel to Athens to take these tests. I’ve calculated
that each new baby costs me about 5,000 euros.
“Even a urinary tract infection can be
catastrophic for a newborn in Santorini”
What’s scary is
that the slightest medical complication can have serious ramifications here.
When he was a month old, my first child developed a urinary tract infection. We
had to make an emergency flight to Athens in order for him to receive the
appropriate medical care.
There is a
private clinic in Santorini, but it is not adapted for giving birth and is
horrifically expensive for a Greek person. The only people who can actually get
treated there are tourists, but only for “small” problems. If, for instance,
they have a car accident, they can’t be operated there and instead have to be
evacuated to Athens.
Santorini
hospital, a symbol of the country's budget cuts
The budget for
the Ministry of Health was drastically cut as a result of the austerity
programme launched by the Greek government in 2009. Between 2009 and 2011,
public hospitals’ budgets were sliced by 25% and a third of all hospitals were
on the brink of shutting down. In fact, Greece has become one of the European
Union countries with the lowest health spending per capita. As a result,
doctors have publicly protested several times in the last few years in Greece.
Santorini is not
the only Greek island that lacks a health centre and that relies on evacuations
to Athens to treat patients. However, it is the only such island that has a
brand new hospital—albeit one that never opened.
In 2008, Greece's
health minister, Dimitris Avramopoulos, decided to build this hospital as a
response to the growing medical needs of the island’s 15,000 Greek inhabitants
as well as those of the many visiting tourists. In 2007, 92,000 patients had
visited the island’s now-closed medical centre, which was completely
overwhelmed by the demand.
Since then,
however, the hospital project has completely fallen through, to such an extent
that a group of residents, of which Georgia Nomikou is a part, launched an
online petition demanding its opening. The group is hoping to collect 15,000
signatures -- one for each resident of Santorini.
