The trade union faction DAKE, which is affiliated to New Democracy, intervenes with a statement on the situation at the General State Hospital of Nice, strongly criticizing left-wing factions and specific trade union representatives, such as Papanikolaou. As it notes, in recent times there has been a systematic attempt to downgrade the efforts to upgrade the hospital, as well as the unilateral attribution of long-standing problems exclusively to the current government. Indeed, he speaks of misinformation, populism and deliberate distortion of reality.

The full statement follows:

In recent years at the General State Hospital of Nice, we have become spectators of events and recipients of opinions whose main purpose is either to downplay the effort made to improve the infrastructure of our hospital or to link the problems that have existed for decades at our hospital purely to the government of the New Democracy.

The main exponents of this are the KKE and ANTARSYA parties and especially Mr. Papanikolaou who, wherever he stands and wherever he is, i.e. in channel broadcasts and in meetings in ministries, informs that HE AND ONLY HE knows the real problems and needs of our hospital and NO ONE ELSE. So they do not accept any change that is being made in our hospital because as you can see if everything is fixed who really needs factions that only exist in times of social upheaval and socio-economic problems;

The odd thing of course is that Mr. Papanikolaou always declares himself to be the spokesman for a portion of the workers through assemblies of a minority of those characteristic of their democracy but we said they are spokesmen for communism. And he always finds a way to be present in places of the Ministry of Health, making institutional statements without informing his democratically elected trade unionists – his colleagues, a typical example being the meeting with the Minister of Health and the director of the dermatology department. In this way confirming that the ANTARSYA faction calls the people to the streets when it wants to and holds informal meetings when it wants to and declares to the workers of Nice, for example, that “if it were not for us, the positions in the anaesthesiology department would not have been advertised”. Of course, the scaremongering and extreme populism of the members of ANTARSYA is one of their main characteristics and it goes without saying that their constant tactic is that any positive change that occurs on the part of the government they are quick to appropriate through the struggles and strikes of a small group of workers.

A few examples:

1. Truth: After the removal of the West Attica hospital and after the intervention of the director of medical services, Mr. Meimaris, in the 2nd YPE, the employees knew from the beginning that they would remain in any hospital they wished, as they did. WHILE: The colleagues of the ANTARSYA faction said they would

we will lose staff and have our positions taken away by the ATTIC hospital undermining the operation and on-call status of our hospital.

2. Truth: For resident positions regardless of specialty, it is illegal to transfer them to another hospital, let alone if they have an active waiting list, which is why they remained at West Attica. The commitment of the Ministry of Health is that they will immediately pass a bill to bring back the residency positions in Cardiology, Pathology, Dermatology and Surgery at our hospital.

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3. FACT: On the opening day of our hospital’s new ICU, a section of workers and people outside the hospital wanted to register their opposition to the government’s stance by preventing the health minister from entering the hospital, perfectly democratic. While a larger portion of hospital workers wanted to attend the site to participate in a milestone day for our hospital, who were threatened and verbally harassed by those protesting. I wonder in what regimes these things happen and do they infringe on our freedoms? SUMMARY.

4. TRUTH: The on-call payments of hospital doctors’ employees have been taxed twice over the years, once at source and cumulatively on their income to their detriment. After the flat tax rate on on-call duties introduced under the New Republic we have a reduction to about 90% of the annual income tax yielding to the workers about one salary per hospital doctor. POSITION: A standing demand of the unions for a flat rate which was accepted after pressure was put on the government.

5. TRUTH: Auxiliary staff in hospitals has increased especially since the pandemic period and is at the point where it is necessary for the proper functioning of hospitals and therefore the renewal of their contracts is a given. RECOMMENDATION: The renewal of the auxiliary staff has been achieved due to the strikes and demands of the KKE and ANTARSYA.

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6. TRUTH: The owed January and February on-call payments will be given to hospital staff as normal without depriving them of accrued wages during the holiday season, as the trade unionists of the leftist factions ran to say effortlessly, causing panic and stress among the workers, forgetting periods under SYRIZA with unpaid on-call payments for 6 months. POSITION: We will not give the January and February on-call payments at Easter to the workers, we propose closing hospitals and continuous strikes until we are paid.

7. New Organization: the “Red Pan” decided to deal with the new organization of the hospital since he is familiar with everything! His constant effort to present himself as a self-appointed saviour has led him once again to adopt his favourite tactics of “mud on the fan”, distortion of the truth and extreme alarmism! He comments with hideous

way an organizational chart that increases staff positions, shows clinics that were operating that were not in the previous organization and that improves the overall way our hospital operates in every department. He is distorting the truth and scaremongering when if he really cared about the employees of the hospital he should have embraced the efforts of the medical department and should have recognized the improvements that have been made, the better image, the substantial upgrading of a hospital located in a region that is not known for its high economic level! Further proof that he is not interested in improving the hospital’s services but in his own promotion through malicious attacks and insults. The same tactics are followed by his political companions!

8. “Red Panos” and his political comrades even commented on the influx of water in a particular part of the hospital during the recent bad weather. He forgot to mention that this is the spot adjacent to the new building to be constructed to house the state-of-the-art operating theatres of the 2nd Medical Centre as well as other vital services of the hospital. A spot where the materials that have been deposited have created the conditions of inflow into part of the old building! We urge colleagues not to just look down and raise their heads because Two Floors have already been erected. This is the same bad weather the intensity of which led to the influx of water into Rome’s largest airport! There to our “surprise” they did not take to the streets to demand the resignation of the government. Sorry, we forgot, they are civilized and they don’t have ANTAPYA!!!

We ultimately prefer to engage in discussions with our elected representatives, demand improvements in infrastructure and working and hospital conditions, and give credit where credit is due. Populism and mud-slinging are commonplace for the other factions. As for the participation of our members as well as several unaffiliated workers in videos highlighting our hospital and its infrastructure HONOUR US and OUR HONOUR. We prefer it to participating in events highlighting one opposing side and the events of the civil war perhaps one of the darkest pages of modern Greek history.

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