According to a report published on 902 portal, Communist Party of Greece (ΚΚΕ) MEPs Kostas Papadakis and Lefteris Nikolaou-Alavanos sent a letter to the presidents of the European Council, EU Commission and EU Parliament, demanding immediate measures of prevention and protection by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In their letter addressed to Mr Charles Michel, Mrs Ursula Von Der Leyen and Mr David Maria Sassoli, the KKE eurodeputies point out the great difficulties that doctors and medical staff face in their fight against COVID-19 outbreak.
"While the number of victims in Europe is rising and we continue counting more and more patients infected by Covid-19 pandemic, doctors, nurses, paramedical personnel are tiressly fighting against the novel coronavirus, under adverse conditions, without rest due to the enormous vacancies in hospitals and the tragic shortages in infrastructure and sanitary material", the letter reads.
The KKE MEPs urge for immediate measures: “Without further delay the governments of the member-states must fulfill the urgent requests of health personnel, to fund and strengthen the public Health Systems with mass recruitments of permanent doctors and nurses. To provide the personnel with all the needed means of Personal Safety”.
The KKE eurodeputies demand the requisition of the private sector health units, inclduding surgeries, ICU beds, respirators, diagnostic and laboratory centers of private hospitals. Also, they propose the integration of private doctors in the public health System under state responsibility, without charge, to undertake exams, home visits (for patients) and prescriptions.
In their letter, the MEPs of the Communist Party refer to the issue of anti-worker policies and methods used by employees during the current crisis. They call for the cancellation of “all the tens of thousands of layoffs (in Greece more than 40,000 people were fired in March) and the harmful changes in collective contracts and working hours that the empoyers have made”. They add that the workers must get the Easter bonus on time, as well as special leaves of absense for health matters. Respective measures of substantial support must be provide to freelance workers and small farmers.
The workers and the people as a whole must not pay, once again, the price in order to save the business groups, concludes the letter.
