Orderlies in short supply at Greek hospitals

The number of orderlies working at Greece’s public hospitals has fallen well below acceptable levels, meaning that security guards and nurses often have to step in to fulfill that role, or patients’ attendants are left searching wards for wheelchairs and gurneys to do the job themselves.

Yiannis Playiannakos, the head of the country’s union of orderlies, said that Greek hospitals have just 1,200 regular orderlies and an additional 500 short-term workers (job seekers registered with Greece’s Manpower Organization, OAED) to cover 4,000 slots for this particular job.

“The contracts of the OAED workers are due to expire in February, and once they go the entire system will collapse,” Playiannakos warned.