Hospital staff to walk off job

Hospital doctors and staff will be staging a work stoppage and rallies on Thursday in response to government plans to further cut spending in the healthcare sector — already plagued by shortages and operational problems — which they say will lead to the ?destruction? of the National Health System.

Hospitals around the country will be working on a skeleton staff on Thursday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., while doctors and workers hold rallies in Athens at the Health Ministry on Aristotelous Street and in other parts of the country at local regional health authorities.

The head of the country?s biggest healthcare provider, Gerasimos Voudouris, meanwhile, reacted on Wednesday to reports suggesting that the National Organization for Healthcare Provision (EOPYY) owes 930 million euros to doctors, pharmacies, private clinics and suppliers, among others. The organization, Voudouris said in a statement, every month submits, ?without fail, its financial statements, accurately and transparently.?