For patients and pharmacists in financially stricken Greece, even finding aspirin has turned into a headache, Bloomberg reports. Life-saving drugs often appear as lines of crimson data on pharmacists’ computer screens, meaning the products aren’t in stock or that pharmacists can’t order as many units as they need.
According to ‘Bloomberg’, the 12,000 pharmacies that dot almost every street corner in Greek cities are the damaged capillaries of a complex system for getting treatment to patients. The Panhellenic Association of Pharmacists reports shortages of almost half the country’s 500 most-used medicines. Even when drugs are available, pharmacists often must foot the bill up front, or patients simply do without.
The financial crisis is brewing a “Greek tragedy” of reducing access to medical care and worsening outcomes for patients, the Bloomberg site concludes.
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