Hospital workers at the Panagiotis and Aglaia Kyriakou Children’s Hospital in Athens are warning that inadequate conditions for caring for children placed under prosecutorial protection orders are putting staff, patients and the youngsters themselves at risk, as they prepare to stage a protest on Friday.
Employees will hold a two-hour work stoppage from 10 a.m. to noon, accompanied by a demonstration outside the hospital in the Goudi district, to press the government for a permanent solution to the issue.
The workers say hospital staff have increasingly been required to care for children, many of them teenagers, who have been removed from the care of their parents or guardians and are awaiting placement in appropriate social care facilities. They add that some incidents involving the children have escalated into violent behavior, resulting in injuries to both employees and other children.
The employees are calling for the immediate creation of specialized residential facilities staffed by adequately trained social care professionals, arguing that hospitals are not equipped to provide long-term psychosocial support.
They said doctors and nurses, already facing staff shortages and heavy workloads, have assumed responsibilities beyond their medical role, while vulnerable children – sometimes numbering more than 20 at a time – remain in hospital wards for extended periods instead of receiving specialized care at appropriate facilities.
