Hospital workers’ union decries lack of a/c in many facilities

The POEDIN union of public hospital workers has issued an announcement decrying the absence of adequate air-conditioning at many of the country’s hospitals as Greece braces for a heat wave.

“Conditions are worse than in prison,” POEDIN said of certain wards where either there are no air-conditioning units or those that do exist are out of order due to a lack of funds for maintenance.

The union cited the cases of the Attica and Dromokaitio psychiatric hospitals, where POEDIN claims that patients in more than 30 wards each will have to face temperatures of above 40 degrees Celsius in the next few days without any air-conditioning whatsoever.

At the Attiko General Hospital, says POEDIN, the air-conditioning units in the emergency ward and in the waiting areas are underperforming and “may as well not exist.”

“Patients already have a hard enough time having to wait up to eight hours to be examined without having to deal with the heat,” the announcement said, adding that workers at the Attiko have requested that the hospital be taken off emergency duty on Friday due to the absence of cooling systems.

POEDIN also noted problems at the Seismanogleio in Athens and Thessaloniki Psychiatric Hospital, among others.