The day before yesterday, Thanasis Kontaris, who became known in the media last month as “Doctor Serifos,” withdrew his resignation from his position as chief/family supervisor “A” of the Multidynamic Regional Clinic (PRP). from Serifos.

After the publication of the memorandum of the letter of resignation which he sent to Health Minister Thanos Pleuris, on his Facebook page in April, Mr. Kontaris came to receive threats against his family, causing him to close his profile. But that’s not why he decided to stay where he was.

The news of his resignation caused a big sensation because Mr. Kontaris was a success story in the field of brain acquisition. In 2018, he decided to leave Sweden, where he worked as a general practitioner, to return to Greece, and certainly not to Athens, Thessaloniki or Patras. His desire was to move to Serifos.

In 2008, he was engaged in agricultural work on the island. There he met his future wife, whose father was from Serifos, where she spent her summers.

Mr. Kontaris knew that there was a clinic in Serifos that he could organize. He took over the dispensary as its first custodian – “until then they were only rural”, indicated in “K” – in August 2018. After almost five years, he resigned.

“I thought about it for a long time,” he notes, but changed his mind when he realized that he did not want to relive what he experienced last summer on an island where there is no infrastructure capable of supporting so many people. tourists.

“The biggest risk is that I was forced to work exhausted during the summer months,” he says. “In recent years,” he adds, “tourism in Serifos has increased by about 35-40%, which implies an increase in demand for medical services without a corresponding increase in staff.”

Lots of flaws

Summer is overloaded, and in winter there are other problems. “Due to the weather, ship routes are often not carried out, helicopters do not take off – in Serifos we do not have the opportunity to treat patients,” he emphasizes. But more than once he had to stay in the doctor’s office, where the patient is forced to spend the night. “There is no home care in Serifos, no private doctors, no pediatrician, nothing to relieve the clinic,” he says. In February, he was about to retire, but he hoped that a younger colleague of his who had shown interest in this practice would come to the island. But when he told him at Easter that he didn’t want to “take that risk,” Mr. Kontaris says, “my last castle collapsed.”

In his resignation letter, he says that he brought the reality of the doctor not only to Serifos, but to all the Cyclades. Last year, his practice interviewed colleagues on 26 of the 28 islands, where the only healthcare facility is the Regional Multipurpose Clinic (PPI). The 19 departments were staffed only by rural doctors, “who have just completed their studies but have no clinical experience or knowledge,” the report said. In 14 cases out of 26, the doctors answered that they had made medical errors due to overwork. “Medical error is also the wrong prescription, it doesn’t mean that it costs a person’s life,” he says, emphasizing that last summer he was ready to make a statement: “Don’t believe me, I’m exhausted.” .

Cry of anguish

Clearly, he never wanted to leave. “It was an act of desperation driven by the fear of a new summer like last year and a cry of pain to highlight the shortcomings in the health services in the Cyclades,” Mr Kontaris told K. After the announcement of his resignation, many divided him: “For the left, I became a supporter, for right-wing propaganda, but all this is not true,” he declares.

“It is important to emphasize that none of the previous governments was able to stimulate not only financial, but also social (for example, the presence of a kindergarten) young scientists to come to hard-to-reach areas,” he says.

Today is the deadline for his withdrawal of his resignation. But last month he negotiated better conditions for the clinic, mainly with Christos Roylos, commander of the 2nd medical district.

From July 1 to September 30, a young colleague of Mr. Kontaris, a family doctor, will visit the island. From July and within three years, a pediatrician will also come, and the polyclinic will be strengthened by a contracted nurse. “I am fulfilling the obligations of Mr. Roylu,” says Mr. Kontaris “K”. “I have never regretted it,” he says of the initial announcement of his resignation. “Because,” he continues, “without any inclination towards party positioning, I have told the truth about the current conditions in the health sector in the Cyclades.”