The doctor and the country we want

The case of Thanasis Kontaris, a doctor on the island of Serifos, deserves closer attention because it represents two very difficult realities in Greece today and two huge challenges in how the country moves forward.

Kontaris returned from Sweden to Greece in 2018 and decided to settle on Serifos, where he also ran the island's health center, until he resigned a few weeks ago. After going public with the reasons why he did so - describing the frustrating and almost impossible conditions under which he had to work - he received assurances that the health center would be bolstered with more medical and nursing staff so that it could respond to the spike in demand for its services during the tourism period, but also during the winter, when the island can find itself cut off from the mainland or other bigger islands for days due to the weather.