Greek doctors protest over unpaid bills

Published Sept. 3, 2012 at 1:34 pm

Striking Hellenic Postbank workers sit outside the state-owned bank's shuttered headquarters building in central Athens on Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012. The government has said that the bank is not viable, triggering union protests that it intends to privatize Hellenic Postbank at a firesale price. Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras promised his austerity-weary countrymen on Thursday that new spending cuts planned for 2013-14 will be the last, but warned that without them the nation would have to leave the 17-member eurozone

Photo by AP

ATHENS — Private doctors working with Greece's largest state-run healthcare provider have started charging their patients, in protest at the organization's unpaid bills.

A doctors’ association said the action against the provider EOPYY started Monday and will last at least five days. Pharmacists launched a similar protest at the weekend, refusing to hand out prescriptions from the state-backed insurer.

Greece’s coalition government is preparing a new round of cuts, worth at least €11.5 billion ($14.4 billion) for 2012-13, demanded by the country’s international rescue creditors. It has fallen behind on paying its public health costs, among other payments, in an effort to restrain the budget deficit.