Strong riot police forces were deployed outside Attikon Hospital in western Athens, ahead of the visit of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis on Wednesday morning.
Reason for the police presence was the “warm welcome”, the hospital workers were preparing for the two officials.
At some point, police made extensive use of tear gas and other chemicals, while they attacked protesters with batons.
Δυνάμεις των ΜΑΤ, της ΟΠΚΕ, των ΔΙΑΣ και των ΥΜΕΤ αντικρίζει κανείς σήμερα στο νοσοκομείο «Αττικόν» για τα εγκαίνια του νέου ΤΕΠ από τον πρωθυπουργό και τον υπουργό Υγείας
Την ίδια ώρα πάνω από 100 ασθενείς είναι σε ράντζα και σε φορεία στους διαδρόμους
Εγκαινιάζουν κτίρια… pic.twitter.com/u6kGYhFlVz
— Π.Α.ΜΕ (@PAMEhellas) October 15, 2025
Χημικά και ξύλο στους γιατρούς του Αττικόν για να κάνει show ο Κούλης. pic.twitter.com/7DGaQ53NqU
— omg3lolz (@omg3lolz) October 15, 2025
Doctors and nursing personnel has being protesting the conditions in the country’s public hospitals and the constant degradation of public health.
Mitsotakis and Georgiadiiadis visited the hospital to attend the inauguration of the hospital’s Emergency Departments (EDs), which were renovated through a Recovery Fund program as well as the the University Oncology Center donated by the Martinis family.
“Our mobilization, no matter what they do, will take place and will be successful,” Giorgos Sideris, president of Athens-Piraeus Hospital Doctors Association and the Employees’ Union at the hospital, said earlier.
The workers have planned a militant “welcome” of the government team with a gathering in the morning at the hospital, emphasizing that the situation is not for … inauguration ceremonies.
“The Ministry of Health has been transformed into a place of trade in healthcare and privatization for the benefit of large-scale contractors, manufacturers, shipowners, pharmaceutical companies. This is their normality,” the hospital workers stressed.
“On each shift there are 120-150 nurses, labor extermination, major staff shortages (only 120 nurses are missing for us to operate within safety limits), half of the operating rooms are closed, miserable salaries. This is our normality,” the added.
“The inauguration of the buildings is good, but will we ever see inaugurations in staff recruitment, salary increases and on-call – overtime, the return of the 13th-14th salary, the opening of the closed operating rooms?”
“We will not capitulate to the policy that is destroying public healthcare and our lives. We will not continue to pay for the profits of others and on top of that, they will blame us for every flaw in the system.”
Δυνάμεις των ΜΑΤ, της ΟΠΚΕ, των ΔΙΑΣ και των ΥΜΕΤ αντικρίζει κανείς σήμερα στο νοσοκομείο «Αττικόν» για τα εγκαίνια του νέου ΤΕΠ από τον πρωθυπουργό και τον υπουργό Υγείας
Την ίδια ώρα πάνω από 100 ασθενείς είναι σε ράντζα και σε φορεία στους διαδρόμους
Εγκαινιάζουν κτίρια… pic.twitter.com/u6kGYhFlVz
— Π.Α.ΜΕ (@PAMEhellas) October 15, 2025
