Doctors at Attikon Hospital in Athens have filed a legal complaint over the severe and long-standing overcrowding in the facility, where dozens of patients are routinely treated on corridor beds after major on-call shifts. The president of the Athens-Piraeus Hospital Doctors’ Union (EINAP), Giorgos Sideris, submitted the complaint directly to the prosecutor of Greece’s Supreme Court, citing conditions that he described as dangerous for patients and exhausting for staff.

According to EINAP, Attikon has been operating for years with between 100 and 150 “ranch beds” after each general duty shift. These temporary beds, placed in hallways and non-clinical spaces, are used when wards overflow beyond their capacity. The union argues that such conditions undermine patient safety, compromise dignity in care, and place extreme pressure on doctors and nurses who struggle to provide adequate treatment in overcrowded areas.

The situation has been acknowledged by the government. In October, Deputy Health Minister Marios Themistokleous publicly recognized the scale of the problem and announced a target to eliminate corridor beds at Attikon within 18 months. However, medical staff stress that the issue is not new and requires immediate, structured intervention to relieve both patients and hospital workers.

Attikon remains one of the most overstretched hospitals in the Greek public health system, with professionals warning that overcrowding has become a persistent and systemic challenge rather than an isolated occurrence.