The SYRIZA MP, who heads the party’s Health and Transparency Department, argues that rather than inspecting businesses already providing such services, the ministry is moving to establish rules governing their operation. He links the initiative to the public controversy following the death of Giorgos Mazonakis, as reported by Efimerida ton Syntakton.
According to Polakis, anti-ageing centres have proliferated in recent years without adequate legal authorisation or regulatory oversight. He attributes this partly to the dismantling of oversight mechanisms within the Health and Welfare Services Inspectorate, which he says took place in 2019–20 under the New Democracy government.
Polakis singles out the ‘Wellness and Lifestyle Clinic’ in the Athens neighbourhood of Kolonaki, which he links to physiatrist Kalaitzi, the wife of minister Kostis Hatzidakis. He claims that the facility operates without a legal regulatory basis and questions whether the ministry’s new initiative is intended to provide legal cover for such establishments.
These allegations form part of the political dispute and do not, in themselves, constitute an established legal finding concerning the clinic’s operation.
The SYRIZA MP has also called on doctors appointed to the legislative committee to withdraw, arguing that their participation risks legitimising practices which, he claims, serve private interests.
Polakis insists that inspections must precede any new regulatory framework, with facilities operating illegally shut down and criminal penalties imposed where warranted. He denounces businesses that promote unsubstantiated promises of ‘eternal youth and longevity’, as well as practices such as alleged ‘blood parasite cleanses’.
Concluding his intervention, Polakis draws a distinction between geriatrics, the medical discipline concerned with the health of older people, and commercial anti-ageing services and practices lacking scientific evidence.
‘Geriatrics is one thing and anti-ageing is another. Science is another and magic is another. Doctors are one thing and charlatans are another.’
He calls on the ministry to prioritise regulatory oversight and the protection of the public.
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