Increased funding and improved primary healthcare would boost the quality of services offered by two leading children’s hospitals in Greece as rising demand for their services is stretching resources, experts told Sunday’s Kathimerini.

Andreas Constantopoulos, a professor of pediatrics at the Aglaia Kyriakou Hospital in Ampelokipi in central Athens, pointed out that many patients who visit the pediatricians at the hospital could have also been treated by general practitioners.

“Some 55,000 children are examined per year and 5,000 of them are admitted for treatment,” he said.

“In one day, the doctors can examine between 600 to 700 children and admit 20 patients, which means that the sick children who needed to go to a hospital are not more than 60,” he said.

“[General practitioners] could have dealt with the rest of the cases,” Constantopoulos added.

Lines of patients can often be seen at hospitals across the country on weekends and public holidays, when medical services offered by social security funds do not operate.

The government has said that it will help improve state healthcare by upgrading municipal health clinics, so patients will not have to go, often needlessly, to hospitals.

Despite Greece’s low birthrates in recent years, the number of children going to hospitals for medical assistance has risen in recent years due to the influx of immigrants.

Official data show that the 1st Pediatric Department of the Aghia Sophia children’s hospital – also in Ampelokipi – examined some 60,000 patients in 1990; the current annual figure is 100,000.

George Chrousos, professor of pediatrics at Athens University, said that understaffing remains one of the biggest problems and that in the evenings two nurses are on duty to care for some 40 to 50 children.

“Despite the problems and the pressure the end result is satisfactory,” he said.

Doctors pointed out that the busiest time of year for children’s hospitals is November-March, when colds and the flu are more common.