Greek healthcare system reaching its limits in fighting COVID-19

Greece's public healthcare system is reaching its limits in the ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, as the numbers of new infections and admissions to hospitals increase, officials and doctors warned, reported Xinhua.

The Greek government took more steps this week to strengthen the healthcare system with the mobilization of private hospitals and clinics in the treatment of patients.

The National Public Health Organization (EODY) announced on Friday 2,405 new cases, 49 deaths and 464 admissions of COVID-19 patients in hospitals nationwide in the past 24 hours. In addition, 521 were intubated.

"If you take into account that a middle-sized hospital in our country has about 200 beds, you will see that in the past few days almost all beds fill up in each emergency shift," Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias told a regular press briefing on Wednesday.

Until two weeks ago, the average daily admissions were almost half. Occupancy at intensive care units (ICUs) and regular wards for COVID-19 patients increases lately at alarming levels, officials and experts said in another press briefing on Friday.

Although the country is in a lockdown since Nov. 7, 2020, the mutated COVID-19 strains which are more contagious than the initial strain and quarantine fatigue have led to an alarming situation, they explained.

In order to control the further spread of the virus, officials also announced on Friday that the lockdown is further extended to March 29 and the few schools which had remained open will also go back to online learning for the next two weeks.

The situation is bleak, two doctors at public hospitals told Xinhua, suggesting additional measures to boost defense.

"In the past few months, a few steps have been taken to increase the number of available beds. However, the total across the country, which stands at about 1,500 beds (for COVID-19 patients in ICUs), is not enough," Panagiotis Papanikolaou, a neurosurgeon, chief consultant at the General Hospital of Nikaia, a Piraeus port suburb, and general secretary of the Federation of Hospital Doctors of Greece, told Xinhua on Thursday.

For Papanikolaou, the mobilization of private hospitals and clinics so far is a "drop of water in the ocean" and more support is needed.

"What we have requested a month ago, forecasting the increase of the epidemiological load in Attica region (which hosts half of Greece's population), is that the big private hospitals in the region will be mobilized for COVID and non-COVID patients," he said.

The measure should apply to all public hospitals in Attica for a month, he said.

Moreover, the federation has called for immediate hiring of more doctors and nurses.

"We want to get support at last by more doctors, nurses and other personnel. Those of us who are currently in the system are not enough to face the COVID-19 tsunami," Despoina Tosonidou, a radiologist at Asklepieio Voulas hospital in the southern suburbs of Athens, and also a unionist, told Xinhua on Friday.

"Every day there are a few dozen patients who are intubated and are not treated inside ICUs. Beds in wards for COVID-19 patients in hospitals are constantly full," the doctor added.

Papanikolaou also suggests the implementation of tougher measures for more social distancing in workspaces and public transport until the mass vaccination program hits 70 percent of the population so that a strong defense shield against the virus is created.