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Patients who cannot afford treatment and hospitals without critical supplies are among victims of the financial meltdown

On a typical day at the clinic sees about 20 people. "The problems are never easy. Sometimes people don 't have the proper insurance, or it takes time for the right papers to come through. Sometimes it's as simple as the fact that they don' t some ? for the bus have to go into hospital for an appointment, so they come here.

"These people are often new poor [created by the financial crisis] and one additional problem is that hospitals now charge on every time someone visits. The Greek heath system is only getting worse and worse," he added sad. "A health system that is not the best thing is getting worse and worse."

"The people who can afford to get immediate treatment, but what is happening in areas with high unemployment as is that people with health problems are not always checked up or, perhaps, as a patient A -. 42 - year-old man with diabetes - were not taking medication when they should because they 't afford it, so what should be a manageable health problem becomes a crisis.

"He said to me". You see, I have four kids and I worked only 3 days in last month "\"

If the clinic in Perama is one example of how bad things are for those at the lower end of Greece 's got ruined economy, have to tell elsewhere doctors and patients their own horror stories in a corrupt healthcare system, where the payment of bribes to doctors is common.

Defiantly, she says she has only charged one of her patients the new ?5 fee. The rest were simply too poor, so she refused to charge them. She is aware her stand against the new rule could get her into trouble, but says she is not scared"I have a patient who is HIV positive," says Kosmopoulou. "He was a journalist who worked on a little paper in Piraeus. He wasn't working and he owed his insurance company money and now he is uninsured. He has cancer. He can stay in the hospital and not pay. He can get his HIV medication and not pay. But I have a huge problem trying to get his chemotherapy paid for."