The supply of healthcare and medicines in Greece is already increasingly difficult – and if the country left the euro , the situation would get even worse, Greek healthcare officials have warned CNBC.
Greeks go to the polls on Sunday in an election that analysts see as a make-or-break moment for the country's fate, with many saying that if the left-wing, anti-bailout party Syriza wins the country will have to exit the single currency area.
“If we leave the euro, this hospital will close down and so will many more,” Tony Rapp, deputy general manager of Athens’ Henry Dunant Hospital, told CNBC.
Staff at his hospital, set up by a charitable trust which has seen donations dry up and the number of people undergoing private procedures halve, are still working despite missing around five months’ pay.
Medical supplies are paid for in cash, and the hospital has to take decisions every day about which bill to pay first. The hospital’s hopes for survival rest on receiving 25 million euros ($31.5 million) in reimbursements from the government – and a loan from Cyprus ’ Marfin Laiki bank, which is itself facing stormy weather. If Greece exits the euro, neither of these will happen, Rapp believes.
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