Staff shortages are crippling public hospitals across Greece’s island regions, with critical specialties going unfilled and operating rooms standing idle, a hospital workers federation warned ahead of a major health rally on Crete on Wednesday.
The Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers documented severe understaffing across Crete, the Ionian Islands, and the Aegean, warning of a “functional dead-end” in regional healthcare. At Hania Hospital, the pulmonology ward has closed entirely. In Agios Nikolaos, anesthesiologists are absent half the month. Rethymno operates with 64 of 92 authorized physicians. On Samos, no pathologist covers five budgeted positions.
“Basic medical specialties are solitary,” the hospital workers group said. “The only remaining road is staff transfers.”
The Health Ministry opened applications for 1,131 permanent NHS physician positions, including 74 on Crete, 32 across the Ionians, and 93 throughout the Aegean islands – though previous recruitment drives have repeatedly gone unfilled.
