Coming ashore after eight hours at sea, medical professionals arrive on Sikinos, one of Greece's smallest inhabited islands, where locals would otherwise struggle to get treatment. The initiative is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation to provide free healthcare in a country where the sector suffered heavily from the debt crisis of 2010-2018, leaving per capita spending at less than half the EU average.
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00:30So there is definitely an insecurity.
00:32Every time mobile units come, it fills us with joy.
00:37Because they carry out very important preventive tests that save lives.
00:41If there is a problem, they discover it and go to Athens for treatment.
01:01We are used to it, it's not difficult.
01:03The most difficult thing is the health issue.
01:06You feel insecure when you don't have the opportunity to have an immediate access to a place
01:14where they can check for sure what you have.
01:19To tell you the truth, I didn't feel insecure.
01:22Because, as I told you before, there is no pharmacy.
01:27So you have to wait for the medicines to arrive,
01:31which usually arrive the next day,
01:35until you can deal with the problem you have.
01:57Tell me, what are the numbers?
01:59Eight and six.
02:01I can't see it well.
02:03Four to five, right?
02:05Let me ask you.
02:07Because if you start to have constipation, you see here where it opens a little?
02:10Yes.
02:11And it doesn't tighten.
02:12We definitely have to tighten this well.
02:15Get up a little, get up.
02:17Nice.
02:21It is important to come here because there is no medical coverage.
02:25Do we have to change the island for the exams?
02:28Yes.
02:29Do we have to change the island?
02:30Yes.
02:31So you understand that it is very important to be able to do an X-ray,
02:34a measure of the oxygen density for oxygenation,
02:37and to be able to check clinically, to put our hands and to do the diagnosis.
02:43Most often we see gynecological symptoms.
02:46It has happened to us to diagnose breast cancer,
02:49which we sent to a hospital in Thessaloniki,
02:51where it was diagnosed and the woman was basically saved.
02:53It was at an early stage.
02:54And only what you have told your previous colleague,
02:57is that only one case to save and to see,
02:59is worth this effort.
03:01For one case.
03:02Only one case.
03:23For one case.
03:24Only one case.