MMC
06-15-2012, 10:06 AM
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's rundown state hospitals are cutting off vital drugs, limiting non-urgent operations and rationing even basic medical materials for exhausted doctors as a combination of economic crisis and political stalemate strangle health funding.
Greece, a member of the euro zone that groups some of the richest nations on earth, has descended so far that drugmakers are even working on emergency plans to keep medicines flowing into the country should it crash out of the currency bloc.
The emergency has grown out of a tangle of unpaid bills, with pharmacists and doctors complaining of being unable to pay suppliers until competing health insurers clear a growing backlog of unfilled state payments.
Greece imports nearly all its medicines and relies heavily on patented rather than cheaper generic drugs, making it vulnerable to a funding squeeze that would grow sharply worse if it were forced out of the euro after elections on Sunday.
The IMF has said Greece needs to keep public health spending below 6 percent of GDP, down from around 10 percent at present and must sharply cut spending on pharmaceuticals which has surged over the past decade.
It says Athens must cut such spending by at least 2 billion euros from 2010 levels, a step that would bring the average public expenditure on outpatient pharmaceuticals to 1 percent of GDP by the end of this year.....snip~
http://news.yahoo.com/greek-health-system-crumbles-under-weight-crisis-141916117.html
Reuters – 31 mins ago<<<<<
There it is.....Greece's infrastructure and healthcare down the tubes. They are even out of basics. Like paper and sheets for beds. Basic services are being stopped. State hospitals emptied out. They have to have another vote and try to get in a govenment that will accept the Austerity Measures. Plus Obama has pushed for the rest of the Eu to keep Greece in.
They need cancer drugs and other pharmaceuticals. I am surprised they never have used generics or introduced them into their system. Funny how the medical companies and pharma are even preparing for Greece to go back to the drachma.
Greece, a member of the euro zone that groups some of the richest nations on earth, has descended so far that drugmakers are even working on emergency plans to keep medicines flowing into the country should it crash out of the currency bloc.
The emergency has grown out of a tangle of unpaid bills, with pharmacists and doctors complaining of being unable to pay suppliers until competing health insurers clear a growing backlog of unfilled state payments.
Greece imports nearly all its medicines and relies heavily on patented rather than cheaper generic drugs, making it vulnerable to a funding squeeze that would grow sharply worse if it were forced out of the euro after elections on Sunday.
The IMF has said Greece needs to keep public health spending below 6 percent of GDP, down from around 10 percent at present and must sharply cut spending on pharmaceuticals which has surged over the past decade.
It says Athens must cut such spending by at least 2 billion euros from 2010 levels, a step that would bring the average public expenditure on outpatient pharmaceuticals to 1 percent of GDP by the end of this year.....snip~
http://news.yahoo.com/greek-health-system-crumbles-under-weight-crisis-141916117.html
Reuters – 31 mins ago<<<<<
There it is.....Greece's infrastructure and healthcare down the tubes. They are even out of basics. Like paper and sheets for beds. Basic services are being stopped. State hospitals emptied out. They have to have another vote and try to get in a govenment that will accept the Austerity Measures. Plus Obama has pushed for the rest of the Eu to keep Greece in.
They need cancer drugs and other pharmaceuticals. I am surprised they never have used generics or introduced them into their system. Funny how the medical companies and pharma are even preparing for Greece to go back to the drachma.