Report from Greek Solidarity Clinics
Winter 2016, we traveled to Greece to shadow and interview participants in solidarity clinics in Thessaloniki and Athens. In the wake of austerity measures that left literally half of Greece’s doctors in the public hospitals and outpatient clinics without work all at once, self-organized clinics have cropped up around Greece providing a range of services to both citizens, refugees, and migrants. We learned about the difference between ‘social clinics’ and ‘solidarity clinics’ in the Greek context. Although these terms are often used interchangeably by visitors, it is clear that their conflation is not appreciated.
-Or there is also a huge mistrust (xxx) on the doctors. Back in the day when I was in Lesvos, the doctor was the master of the field. People would just believe in a doctor because he had his red cross sign, nothing else. We had many problems with doctors for example, in Lesvos, I fought with many of them. I punched one, also. [lights cigarette; someone interrupts in French motioning to some wood, presumably asking if he can have it; take it, take it.’]
- So yeah, we had a problem. People were coming believing they were *doctors*, and they were stepping in, and then we were like ‘what the fuck?’ For example, this guy was a doctor, he came from the UK. and when the patient was almost gone, he started praying to Allah to take him away peacefully. And I was like ‘what the fuck, man?’ and that was the punch. Like ‘what the fuck, wake up’ If you are about to send him to Allah, then just quit and let me try, or let somebody else try. Because if that’s all you can do, then, well, I will try and do something even though I am not a doctor. -Anonymous, member of No Borders
While both types of facilities operate on a volunteer basis, providing care to citizens and noncitizens alike, their further operational and ideological differences mean that they serve very different functions in the community. Social clinics such as MKIE, the Metropolitan Community Clinic at Helliniko, do not eschew collaboration with the state or other major nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, etc. As a result of having more resources at their disposal - sometimes including grants from state agencies or property to house their operations - ‘social clinics’ attract volunteers who are looking for a professional context to provide medical care to patients that they might no longer have access to as a result of major budget cuts.
The social clinics are fulfilling an important role in the fucked up state that is greece rn by providing quality medical services to great numbers of people. They closely resemble the state-run hospitals that have failed them, but the workers are unpaid. This resemblance affords them a kind of authority in the eyes of the average Greek citizen seeking medical care, allowing them to serve broader sections of the population. On the other hand, this resemblance hinders their freedom to experiment with new strategies for operating as healthcare providers in their local contexts.
Solidarity clinics, on the other hand, although variously factional in their specific political motivations, have roots in the autonomous movement within Greece. These clinics tend to be housed within larger occupied social centers. This means that they are already operating illegally. They run solely on the basis of donations from individuals (including donated equipment from comrades in Germany and elsewhere), the surplus and detritus of other institutions, the support from the social movements they are a part of and support, as well as the volunteered time and efforts of their members. To be honest, we had expected a certain degree of dysfunctionality, or maybe chaos, that we really did not find. In these clinics, major decisions are made in assemblies often composed of the doctors, organizers, ‘receptionists’, and sometimes care seekers. Many of the participants told us that although the assemblies can go a bit long in Greece, they appreciate what happens as a result of this process. The assemblies give them a chance to step back and reflect on what is working or not from their operations.
Many of the doctors from solidarity clinics that we spoke to touched on the same point: the medical practice in Greece both before and after the crisis does not leave enough time and space for understanding the needs of the patient. They felt rushed, they felt anxious, they felt pressured. They felt pressured to find a short-term solution to the problem within fifteen minutes in order to see the next patient. Although the internal structures are various and multiple, all of the doctors stressed how much they appreciated the new relationship to time afforded to them now that they have the time to practice on their own terms. The grassroots nature of these projects means that patients - now understood as ‘care seekers’ - elect (elect is a relative term when you have few other options) to attend these self-organized clinics, in the sense that they are new frameworks that they have not been otherwise directed towards. If they have a good experience, they return. This means that care seekers develop a different and perhaps more informal relationship with their volunteer providers. Often the clinics do not ‘advertise’ their services widely and are thus seen by locals in the community or refugees in need that are directed there.
“So yeah, we had a problem. People were coming believing they were *doctors*, and they were stepping in, and then we were like ‘what the fuck?’ For example, this guy was a doctor, he came from the UK. and when the patient was almost gone, he started praying to Allah to take him away peacefully. And I was like ‘what the fuck, man?’ and that was the punch. Like ‘what the fuck, wake up’ If you are about to send him to Allah, then just quit and let me try, or let somebody else try. Because if that’s all you can do, then, well, I will try and do something even though I am not a doctor.” -Anonymous, member of No Borders