“This is another big problem,” says Georgia Karakatsani, 53, “but not the main one. As he explains, this this is the health care system of the island.

Maria Fesara said that last year, when her husband had to go to the hospital, she was asked to buy gauze and betadine from the pharmacy to close the wound.

“We don’t have a hospital,” says Popi Teologu, 60. “We may have good doctors, but they don’t have the resources to treat people,” he says. In addition to the uncertainty that all the inhabitants of Mastichari who spoke to “K” emphasized that they were caused by the lack of proper medical care on the island, there is also a price.

According to Ms Teologu, many private doctors have come to the island in the last two years.I. “Suddenly we have private doctors instead of a public hospital to treat us,” he says. Even for exams or mammograms, they have to go to Rhodes or Athens, he emphasizes. These are tickets, meals, accommodation if there are serious problems, escort expenses, etc. “You can’t have your tonsils and go to Rhodes,” says Mrs. Pappuli.

Things, as noted by local residents, worsen in the summer, when the island is full of people.

“We have a hospital without doctors, without staff, EKAV without rescuers – we are permanent residents of Kos and run to Athens for doctors,” Antonis Gikas, 69, the owner of a tavern in Mastichari, tells K.

“We should be the island of Hippocrates,” says Ms. Karakatsani “K” from the Mastichori kiosk.“we should be the best of the best, but the situation is third world.”

In 2023, he stresses, the people of the island deserve better treatment, especially in the area of ​​healthcare.. “Because we have the sea,” he explains, “we don’t have land to take a car and go to the big city.” “We feel completely cut off,” he says to “K”, “is it possible to be like this in our time?”.