Financial Times
May 22, 2011
The Greek government has fallen sharply behind on payments to healthcare companies only months after restructuring its €5.4bn ($7.6bn) debt to suppliers, raising doubts about patient safety while revealing the looming cash-flow crisis faced by the state.
The pharmaceutical industry says only 30 per cent of €1.2bn in payments owed by public hospitals since the start of last year have been made. Of debt due from the start of 2011, just 1 per cent has so far been paid.
The cash crunch in the health sector adds to the urgency of measures planned by the Greek government to raise revenue through a pledge to sell €50bn of state-controlled assets. Fears are mounting in eurozone capitals, however, that the socialist leadership of George Papandreou, prime minister, is not committed to the painful measures necessary to meet revenue targets.
“The situation has become dramatic,” the Hellenic Association of Pharmaceutical Companies said in a letter to the ministry of health, warning that it was “only a matter of time before drug shortages on the market begin to occur”.
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