Shock and anger have followed an incident at Hippokrateio Hospital in Athens, where, according to witness accounts, a hospital orderly refused to provide a wheelchair for the son of an 87-year-old man so he could transport his elderly father during the heatwave, whentemperatures were reportedly close to 40°C.
The incident took place on Wednesday morning, when the 87-year-old arrived at Hippokrateio Hospital with his son for scheduled tests. According to a report on Star channel’s midday news bulletin, the son asked an orderly for a wheelchair to move his father to the outpatient clinics, about 100 meters away.
His concern was that his father, already exhausted, might faint because of the high temperatures.
Orderly: These things don’t happen. No wheelchair leaves the building.
Son: Excuse me, but this is an elderly person, as I told you, and I’m afraid he might faint from the heat on the way.
Orderly: That sounds like a threat to me. That if he faints, it’ll be my fault.
Son: No, sir. It’s not a threat. It’s genuine concern that he might faint.
Orderly: If he faints, I’ll pick him up myself.
Public Official Responses
Michalis Giannakos, president of the civil hospital workers’ union POEDIN, commented on the incident, saying “a wheelchair cannot be given to a companion who will be moving along Vasilissis Sofias Avenue among cars. The annex is located 100 meters from the hospital’s main building. Despite this, the orderly not only refused to give them a wheelchair but showed no willingness to find a solution.
The incident drew a strong reaction from Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who apologized publicly for the employee’s behavior in a social media post, calling the incident unacceptable. The minister stressed that the National Health System has one single mission: to serve the citizens who need it.
Georgiadis confirmed the reports about the incident but noted that no formal complaint has been filed so far. He added that if one is filed, he will immediately order a sworn administrative investigation.
