Greek opposition blames government for medicine shortages country facing

The Greek opposition party blamed the government for the medicine shortages the country is facing, media reports said Wednesday.

Theano Fotiou, a senior deputy with the main opposition SYRIZA-PS, argued that the government overlooked warnings from doctors and pharmacists when shortages started to appear a year ago.

She told SKAI TV, one of Greece's major private broadcasters, that the government, instead of taking measures, stated that it opposes state intervention and believes that the drug market would regulate itself.

"Instead of taking proper steps, the government blames parents for over-medicating, and doctors for over-prescribing, increasing the prices of medicines," she said. "It is an international problem."

"We, SYRIZA, propose to stop parallel exports now and indefinitely, to check the pharmacies to see if they have the three-month stock and to create a national stock for four basic categories of drugs," she said.

Nikos Tzanakis, a senior expert in pulmonology, however, said he expects a major surge in cases of flu in the next three to four weeks.

"I estimate that number of weekly cases could be as high as 350,000," he told SKAI TV.

Tzanakis said the current form of flu, widely seen in the country, is more dangerous than the coronavirus because it causes pneumonia.