Greek islands face serious shortage of doctors

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) – Greek islands face a serious shortage of doctors and other medical professionals, local media reported on Thursday.

The daily Kathimerini said that the island of Limnos in the northeast Aegean is left without an anesthesiologist as the island’s only anesthetist is on sick leave.

Speaking to the newspaper, the director of the hospital on the island, Konstantinos Katsigiannopoulos, said: “The island will be without an anesthetist throughout the Easter holidays at least, as was the case for 15 days at Christmas.”

The absence of an anesthesiologist causes a domino effect on many functions of the hospital, he stressed.

Similarly, Kos, with a population of some 40,000 people, didn’t have a permanent pathologist for a year, and the two pathologists who had been sent to the island temporarily left on Monday.

On Santorini, one of the most popular islands of Greece, the only 72-year-old anesthesiologist resigned, and the hospital is still without a pathologist.

Only 54 vacancies were allocated to the Aegean and Ionian Islands among the 854 permanent medical staff positions which were recently announced by the Health Ministry, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Greece’s Medical Association (PIS) has urged the government to update the law on doctors’ incentives to attract and retain doctors on the islands.