Below is the full text of the signature statement.

‘We do not deserve to have Adonis Georgiadis as Minister of Health – he should be dismissed immediately’

We stand by our colleague Dimitris Ziazias, who was targeted in a vulgar manner by Health Minister Georgiadis. After all this, Adonis Georgiadis cannot remain in his position. Not only because he lied about Dimitris Ziazias, but also because he has exceeded all limits in threats, toxicity, and abuse of power.

This man cannot be Minister of Health. He must be dismissed immediately by the prime minister. A man who attempts the moral extermination and defamation of public health workers, and who describes those who resist as ‘gang members’, cannot lead the Ministry of Health. A man who has no qualms about lying and fabricating grotesque allegations for the purpose of producing toxic online content.

He should already have been banned for life from any contact with the Ministry of Health. In his first term, he closed hospitals (including hospitals specialising in infectious diseases), fired thousands of employees, financially strangled the National Health System, and dismantled primary healthcare. He bears a huge share of responsibility for the weakening of the country’s health defences, which cost thousands of human lives during the pandemic, lives that could have been saved.

In his second term, he abolished the fundamental law of the National Health System, taking us back to the pre-1980s reforms that created the National Health System. He legalised under-the-table payments through paid afternoon surgeries and clinics, and shifted public structures to private interests. He does not hesitate to claim he doubled state health spending, when under his ministry the only thing that doubled was the turnover of private hospitals. He claims the National Health System’s staff increased, while the country recorded some of the worst indicators in Europe for health poverty.

The escalation he is pursuing today aims to continue the dismantling of the National Health System: the erosion of its public and free character, and the strengthening of private capital in healthcare, without anyone resisting. Even the inaugurations of health facilities, always funded by taxpayers, that he publicises have, he has already agreed, to be transferred to private insurance companies.

Doctors, nurses and health workers in both the public and private sectors have no path other than struggle and advocacy to keep the National Health System standing. We know that if Georgiadis leaves, someone else will continue his work. However, it is more urgent than ever that he goes. If he remains any longer, there will be nothing to hand over to his successor but scorched earth. If we manage to get him dismissed, we will be able to breathe and continue our struggle.

Two worlds collide every day. On the one hand, the repulsive face of Adonis Georgiadis: lies, slander, dishonest attacks, and the discrediting of the public health system. On the other, the clear, determined face of doctors, nurses and all healthcare workers who choose to serve public health at great personal cost.

We, as health professionals and as a society, do not deserve this constant toxicity in the service of selfish interests. We do not deserve such a health minister. He should be dismissed immediately.

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