Posted by moodhacker on May 20, 2013 at 8:10 AM
Bloomberg's article "Greece Isn’t Turning the Corner", posted on May 20 2013 12:56 AM GMT+0300 writen by Megan Greene, popped up, by a traverlers' diary that made clear the misery of Greece's health system back oin the austerity days
..."In late 2011, I needed hospital services in Greece, having been tossed off a cruise ship which did not understand that I was mostly having a gout attack, not some contagious calamity. I was taken to a private hospital in Piraeus (Metropolitan Hospital) which was well equipped and competently staffed. They took a deposit from my credit card, and credited back unused services at the end. Everything was above board, and professional and competent, and the total bill including MRI was just 40% of what it would have been in the USA, probably less. However, in my semi-private room was another patient who had originally gone to a public hospital. The doctors there were paid 8 euros an hour (when and if they were paid), and consequently demanded bribes for everything. "You want an operation? I get 5000 Euros under the table or I won't lift a scalpel. You don't want to feel the cutting? The anesthesiologist gets 2000 euros and the nurse gets 1000." The guy had a hole in his heart, and he checked out of the public hospital because they were extorting him to death. A country with such corruption is unstable. Whatever "improvement" euphoric investors see is an illusion" ..."It is growth they need, not an austerity that pays workers starvation wages and makes them take illegal, untaxed payments in cash to supplement their official wages..."
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