Health care

The number of Greeks who have died from flu this winter has reached 7, the AMNA news agency reported on Thursday.

According to figures released by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KEELPNO), 12 patients were admitted to intensive care units in the last few days, raising the number of people being treated at intensive care units to 22.

A 16-month-old boy was being treated in a children?s intensive-care unit at the University Hospital of Iraklio on the island of Crete on Saturday, with symptoms of meningococcal septicaemia, a life-threatening disease.

The toddler had been transferred to the Iraklio medical facility from Hania last Friday.

Romania is suffering from growing staff shortages in the health sector, as the number of doctors leaving the system remains higher than those joining the profession, according to officials.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Health Zlatibor Loncar and representatives of three representative trade unions in the health-care sector Tuesday signed a new collective agreement with the aim of improving the health-care system.

An Emergency Mobile Resuscitation and Extrication Service (SMURD) helicopter has crashed, on Monday, in Siutghiol Lake near the seaside resort of Mamaia.

According to local authorities the helicopter was on a mission and was transporting a patient to Constanta County Hospital.

A worker was killed after a private coal mine collapsed in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak on Dec. 12.

The 33-year-old man, identified as Selami Yalçın, was trapped beneath rocks after the mine's roof collapsed at around 11.00 a.m.

Yalçın was recovered from the rubble by his colleagues and taken to a nearby hospital by paramedics, but he could not be saved.

Incidents involving attacks on emergency medical teams do not necessarily involve Roma communities, Sofia emergency aid head Georgi Gelev has warned.

He told the Bulgarian National Television that some of the assaults were related to excessive drinking or other problems.

Bulgaria's Health Minister Petar Moskov has warned that emergency medical teams will not respond to calls in Roma neighborhoods until their safety is guaranteed.

In a Sunday interview for bTV he claimed that 174 out of a total of 225 attacks against doctors, paramedics, and ambulance drivers had happened in such neighborhoods.

The Health Ministry is poised to introduce fines for doctors who exceed prescription limits and pharmacies that fail to provide generic medicines wherever possible.

Kathimerini understands that the measures will be included in a large draft law that the ministry is preparing with the aim of tying up a number of loose ends in the health sector.

An increasing number of Greeks are seeking some form of private health insurance to supplement their state health cover, according to the results of a nationwide survey which pointed to a 60 percent rise in citizens opting for private care.