Greek Hospitals Suffer In Ailing Economy  By Joanna Kakissis
December 9, 2012  The economic crisis in Greece is strangling
the country's hospitals, where budgets have been slashed by more
than half. As a result, nearly all doctors in both public and
private hospitals have seen their pay cut, delayed or
even frozen.  "On top of that, we lack basic supplies to do our
jobs," says Vangelis Papamichalis, a neurologist at the Regional
Hospital of Serres in northern Greece and a member of the
doctors union here. "We run out of surgical gloves, syringes,
vials for blood samples and needles to sew stitches, among
other things."   The Health Effects Of Unemployment  In Serres,
the 100 doctors and 80 residents who work at the regional
hospital often work up to 100 hours a week and see a rising
number of uninsured patients for free.  The city is in a region
with the same name located in the northern province of
Macedonia, on the border with Bulgaria. The Regional Hospital of
Serres serves the more than 200,000 people wh