“Healthcare is expensive and for chronic disease such as MS it is even more so. MS punches well above its weight when it comes to both the direct healthcare costs and indirect societal costs of a disease. This is why my heart goes out to all the MSers living in Greece who must be very anxious about their future. Who is going to pay and look after them when the true impact of austerity hits their healthcare system? The provision of healthcare, even basic healthcare, will be affected regardless of whether or not Greece is in or out (Grexit) of the EU. An Editorial in one of the broadsheets yesterday made it clear that Greece is essentially bankrupt and this will have a major impact on their health as a nation. What can we do to help them? We are going to have to develop new, cheaper and more effective, ways to treat, and manage the consequences of, MS. For the average Greek MSer the days of high cost drugs must surely be limited. Will the use of off-label cheaper drugs challenge the status quo in Greece? If Greece remains in the EU this may have some unforeseen consequences for Europe as a whole. How can we sanction one EU country using of off-label drugs and not others?”
Some articles of interest:
Mehreen Khan (Athens). Why the state of Greek hospitals tell us the drachma could be coming. Telegraph. Telegraph 21 Jun 2015.
Athens was forced to issue a form of ‘quasi-drachmas’ to suppliers at the height of its cash crisis five years ago. They may be perilously close to doing the same today. Greece is the drug capital of Europe. A short walk around an Athens street reveals the green cross of a pharmacist jutting out from the sides of myriad premises. For every 100,000 Greek inhabitants, there are nearly 98 pharmacists at their disposal, the highest ratio in the EU. By comparison, there are only 21 in the UK and 56 in nearest EU rival Bulgaria. On a per capita basis, Greece has double the number of pharmacists than France and Spain. The ubiquity of high-street pharmacies belies the dangerous truth about the country’s broken health care sector: basic medical supplies are frighteningly close to running dry. In an economy where the butcher’s knife of austerity has been wielded across all areas of the public sector, health care has been gutted more savagely than most……
Kentikelenis et al. Health effects of financial crisis: omens of a Greek tragedy. The Lancet 2011; Volume 378, No. 9801, p1457–1458, 22 October 2011
Greece has been affected more by the financial turmoil beginning in 2007 than any other European country. 15 years of consecutive growth in the Greek economy have reversed. In adults, unemployment has risen from 6·6% in May, 2008, to 16·6% in May, 2011 (youth unemployment rose from 18·6% to 40·1%),1 as debt grew between 2007 and 2010 from 105·4% to 142·8% of gross domestic product (GDP; €239·4 billion to €328·6 billion) compared with the average change in the EU-15 (the 15 countries that were EU members before May 1, 2004) from 66·2% to 85·1% of GDP in this same period (€6·0 trillion to €7·8 trillion).
This is a self fulfilling prophecy, there is one thing which time and again has been a truism – politics and healthcare do not mix. The Greek government has been playing games and in its short mindedness has compromised the safety and livelihood of its dependants. There needs to be a way where emergency healthcare is ring fenced from the political card game, not only in Greece but all over the world. Maybe we should all start a new movement!
Perhaps Goldman Sachs might like to dig behind the sofa to make a contribution to Greece as they helped a previous Greek government fiddle the figures so they would be accepted into the Eurozone. This Greek government is merely stating that the current situation is unacceptable due to the reckless behaviour of previous administrations. greece will never be able to pay the current debt off and it needs to be written down. The IMF agrees.I guess we watch this space.
Agree completely MD2! Interesting article in New Statesmen from Slavoj Zizek on this. Usually this guy is very heavy going for me, I've struggled so many times with his books, but this article is good.
I'll have a look.Agree that most of the time his stuff is like wading through treacle!
Article here if anyone else is interested.http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/07/Slavoj-Zizek-greece-chance-europe-awaken
This one's good too.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/06/yanis-varoufakis-angela-merkel-crisis-global-minotaur-capitalism-europe
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/30/drugmakers-plan-greece-medicine-shortage-eurozone
This is more serious than we realise. It will not only affect DMTs, but things like urinary catheters and catheter bags.
'The Greek government has been playing games'And the Eurozone countries/creditors/IMF have not? ???Unfortunately the whole thing, like all politics is a game. I agree healthcare should be ring-fenced, but this is unlikely to happen in the majority of the world, including the UK, where plans are already in action to privatise parts of the NHS.
MSers in Greece? Don't they have lots of vit D3 and sunshine out there? Doesn't hot weather exacerbate Uhthoff's Phenomena?Sounds like a real mind-boggling crisis to me.
circa 10,000 according to the 2013 European MS Barometer report from 2013. It's a very interesting report, giving an outline of MS treatments, employment etc … by country. Germany fares best as do Scandinavian countries. Greece is ahead of Ireland on many metrics. UK is quite interesting to view, especially in relation to other countries.http://www.emsp.org