Rouvikonas group condemned for threatening doctor
The Athens and Piraeus hospital doctors’ association (EINAP) has condemned the Rouvikonas anarchist group after its members barged into a doctor’s office at the Evangelismos hospital in Athens on Wednesday and threatened him to stop taking bribes from patients to perform surgery.
In a statement, EINAP said that violence will not resolve the serious problems the country’s health sector is faced with.
“Only the organized resistance of all medical staff in alliance with our patients and the people can solve these problems,” it said.
The self-styled anarchist group posted a video on an anti-establishment website showing its members barging into the doctor’s office and threatening to smash his head if he continued to take bribes.
Greeks are regularly forced to hand doctors a fakelaki (“little envelope” with money) for treatment at state hospitals,
“If we find out again that you received a fakelaki in here, we'll show your photo and your name to the entire hospital,” one of the men is heard telling the doctor in the video. “If you continue doing this, we'll come outside your house and break your head,” the man said, adding that if they get caught and go to jail, they will break his head again and cut his hand once they get out.
