Greece’s public healthcare system is buckling under chronic understaffing, according to a new report from the Panhellenic Federation of Public Hospital Workers (POEDIN). The findings paint a stark picture of hospitals and health centres across the country’s islands—from Crete to the Cyclades—where shortages of doctors, nurses and support staff have forced clinics to close, intensive care units to operate below capacity and left existing personnel exhausted by relentless shifts.
The situation is especially acute in remote and island regions, where many facilities now rely heavily on auxiliary workers, private contractors and the constant redeployment of staff from other areas. With the tourist season approaching, when island populations can multiply several times over, union representatives warn that the system is approaching operational collapse.
Crete: ICUs and Operating Theatres Curtailed
On Crete, major hospitals such as Venizeleio Hospital and PAGNI are reporting extensive gaps across nearly all specialties. At Venizeleio, three of the 15 ICU beds remain closed due to a lack of personnel, and only five of the eight operating theatres are functional. In nursing alone, more than 100 posts are vacant. At Chania General Hospital, shortages affect 40 to 45 percent of established posts; the Pulmonology Clinic has shut entirely, the Accident and Emergency department runs with just two doctors, and only three of seven operating tables are available. Staff also report a rise in incidents of violence linked to the absence of security personnel.
Other hospitals on the island face similar struggles. At Agios Nikolaos General Hospital, staff numbers have fallen by 20 percent over the past four years, and ICU beds have been reduced from six to four. On many days, the hospital operates without an anaesthetist or a radiologist. At Ierapetra General Hospital, only one anaesthetist, one physician and one paediatrician remain in post.
Ionian Islands: An ICU That Never Opened
The pattern repeats across the Ionian Islands. At Kefalonia General Hospital, the ICU has never been activated because of a lack of intensivists and nurses. At Lefkada General Hospital, the facility is effectively running on skeleton staff, with up to 50 percent of nurses employed on fixed-term contracts. At Corfu General Hospital, both medical and nursing staffing stand at around 45 percent of established posts. Meanwhile, Corfu Psychiatric Hospital has seen its permanent workforce shrink from 300 employees to roughly 100, and there has not been a child psychiatrist on the island for more than a decade.
Aegean: Thousands of Owed Days Off on Rhodes
Across the Aegean islands, many facilities are struggling to meet basic healthcare needs. At Rhodes General Hospital, more than 15,000 days off and leave are owed to staff because of severe understaffing, and only two of the seven operating theatres are functioning. Modern medical equipment, including an MRI scanner and a digital mammography unit, remains largely unused due to a lack of specialist doctors.
Samos General Hospital is operating without an internist, ophthalmologist, ENT specialist, neurosurgeon or oncologist, while nurses are often left alone on shifts that fall below safe staffing levels. At Chios General Hospital, ICU capacity is being reduced because of staff shortages, and part of the on-call rota is covered remotely by private companies.
Cyclades: Health Centres on the Brink
The situation is especially pressing on the smaller islands. Health centres on Milos, Tinos, Ios and Amorgos report serious shortages of doctors, nurses and paramedics, and on some islands there is not a single paediatrician. Staff and union representatives warn that continued understaffing is pushing many healthcare facilities to the brink of operational collapse, particularly as the tourist season looms.
The public health system’s growing dependence on fixed-term staff, outsourced cleaning and catering services, and the constant redeployment of personnel between hospitals to cover basic needs is becoming ever more apparent. In many cases, state-of-the-art medical equipment and entire hospital wings remain idle because there are not enough staff to operate them.
This crisis is not isolated to Greece. Across Europe, healthcare systems face similar pressures from ageing populations and workforce shortages, as highlighted in recent reports on worsening health among younger Britons and the global surge in mental health cases. The Greek islands’ predicament, however, is compounded by geography and seasonality, making it a stark warning for other European regions with remote or tourist-dependent communities.
