Article
by:
Sandra
we will save them from occupation: ction of the public healthcare system of America, where unemployment and disease together represent a death sentence: a study from the Harvard University, in 2009, concluded that about 45 thousand Americans die every year for lack of treatments. Greece is now below the european average in public health expenditure per capita. OECD reports conclude that the Greek public health expenditure increased in average, per year, 6.1% from 2000 to 2009, but decreased, just from 2009 to 2010, 6.5%. Solidarity actions in this field have therefore grown. There are presently, in the whole country, about 25 solidarity clinics, many of them belonging to municipalities. Most of these clinics were created in the past year, with the aggravation of the crisis and after the healthcare systems’ reform. In Kalamata, in southern Greece, in the Messinia region, I found the Social Solidarity Clinic of Kalamata, born from spontaneous and citizen initiative. It works in the old hospital of Kalamata, with donated equipment and with exclusively volunteer work – secretaries, doctors, nurses, dentists and
social workers. It responds to the needs of citizens excluded from the public structures, like the National Healthcare System or the Social Security, regardless of their nationality. It provides primary medical cares, through the services of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Ultra-Sounds and Dentist. It has its’ own pharmacy, supplied exclusively by donations, that allows to give the necessary medication to the patients in the moment of their appointment. The Clinic is part of the Social Solidarity Clinics Network, which unites other sibling projects at a national level, as well as doctors and specialists working in the public or private system, that volunteer to reinforce and complement the provided services. In